R S V P : Pacific Symphony Group Hosts Dinner, Concert : Up Close and Personal

About 50 friends of the Pacific Symphony gathered at Janice and Roger Johnson’s Laguna Beach home last Friday for an intimate concert by principal clarinetist James Kanter and accompanist Sandra Matthews. The dinner party--one of many such activities for members of the symphony’s Maestro Society--provided yet another chance for key supporters to mingle with their own maestro, Carl St. Clair. Hired to head the group last year, the handsome young conductor still exerts a magnet’s pull on the cocktail party set. “He’s very sociable, very outgoing,” reported Maxine Gibson, one of the few guests who had not met St. Clair at any of the parties given in his honor. “He’s adorable.”

The Rooms, the Views

The Johnsons live on a rocky outcropping high above the waves, with a wide-angle view of surf and sky beyond their many windows. Alas, it was dark and cold outside by party’s start, so guests turned their attention to the comfortable furnishings, the elegant catered buffet and each other. Settled in cushy couches and big armchairs, perched near the toasty hearth, bellying up to the bar in a heated tent enclosing a brick patio--the party-goers lifted glasses of wine and washed down platefuls of marinated shrimp and vegetables, smoked salmon, beef tenderloin, Italian sausage and polenta.

Speeches

“Janice and Roger told me I could live with them,” joked Lou Spisto, executive director of Pacific Symphony and the first to address the group from the curve of the Johnsons’ grand piano. “This house is so beautiful--you have a room for me, don’t you?” he asked Roger Johnson, who stood nearby.

For his part, Johnson told his friends and fellow symphony buffs that he felt “blessed” to have been in Orange County for the past eight years because “so many things are happening here.”

Of course, he added, “I only know something important is happening if Janice tells me it is.” Then he described “the day she came home . . . and said, ‘Carl St. Clair has been hired by the Pacific Symphony and that is the most important thing that has happened here since we opened the (Performing Arts) Center.’ ”

After Johnson skimmed through St. Clair’s curriculum vitae (which began, “He was born in 1970--no, no, he only looks 22”), the maestro gave a little pep talk. He praised the musicians. He praised his new home. Orange County is “young” and “thriving” and “energetic,” he said; he promised an orchestra to match. If St. Clair seemed--as he has on other occasions--a little hesitant and uncomfortable addressing a group, you wouldn’t have known it by watching the smiles and nods of approval as

he spoke, or listening to the

warm applause when he was

through.

The Main Event

Before the concert, Kanter said he loved to perform for small gatherings. “I really enjoy having people right there when I’m playing. I love the fact that there isn’t this invisible shield between musician and audience.”

Moments later, when he stepped behind his lighted music stand, the clarinetist proved to be an engaging performer--relaxed and casual as he spoke, wonderfully emotive as he played.

Faces

Among guests were Claudette and Don Shaw, Marcy and Maurice Mulville, Lucy and Howard Clark, Judy O’Dea Morr and Tom Kendrick, Christa and Gerry Long, Liz and Mike Rafferty, Lorraine Lippold, Joyce Hanson, Vesta Curry, Peg Reday.