Violinist Mischa Lefkowitz has been named concertmaster...

Violinist Mischa Lefkowitz has been named concertmaster of the Garden Grove Symphony, orchestra officials announced Friday.

Born in Riga, Latvia, the 34-year-old violinist has studied with the legendary Leonid Kogan in Moscow and also with Nathan Milstein, Mischa Mischakoff, Roman Totenberg and Henri Temianka. He immigrated with his parents to Los Angeles in 1972. He won third prize in the 1983 American Music Competition at Carnegie Hall, where the emphasis is on performance of American music.

After arriving in Los Angeles Lefkowitz became a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and also has toured the state as an artist on the roster of the California Arts Council touring program. His appointment with Garden Grove Symphony, to begin on Oct. 21, will run concurrently with his membership in the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Lefkowitz also will give two recitals--on Oct. 29 at the Mills House in Garden Grove and on Jan. 21, 1990, at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton--as part of the orchestra’s recital series. The orchestra’s next concert will be its fifth free “Symphony in the Park” pops program at 5 p.m. on Aug. 19 at the Village Green Park, Euclid and Main Streets in Garden Grove. Information: (714) 534-1103.

The orchestra also announced that music director Edward Peterson will fly to Cannes, France, to conduct the Orchestre Regional de Cannes next Feb. 18 in a program of American music. Peterson’s visit is part of a conductor-exchange program. The French orchestra’s music director Philippe Bender will lead the Garden Grove Symphony in a program of French music on June 2, 1990, at the Don Wash Auditorium in Garden Grove.

The Grove Shakespeare Festival’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” now on the boards at the Festival Amphitheatre in Garden Grove, has been extended to Aug. 19. Information: (714) 636-7213.

Orange County musician James Harman has received nominations in three categories in the 1988-89 W.C. Handy Awards, given by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation recognizing traditional and contemporary blues artists. The James Harman Band’s “Extra Napkins” album, on the Orange-based Rivera Records label, is up for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year, along with albums by the Robert Cray Band, Willie Dixon, Etta James, James Cotton and others. The group itself has been nominated in the Blues Band of the Year category, while its harmonica-playing leader is competing for Blues Instrumentalist of the Year (Miscellaneous) honors.