MUSIC : Garden Grove Symphony Adds O.C. to Name : The orchestra also announces it will offer three classical concerts and two pops programs for the 1991-92 season.

In a move to better reflect its audience base and to help broaden support throughout the county, the Garden Grove Symphony has changed its name to the Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove.

“A majority of our audience always was outside of Garden Grove,” orchestra general manager Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi said in announcing the group’s new season on Tuesday. “Garden Grove still had the largest number percentage-wise of any community, but the majority was outside of the city limits.”

Guest artists for the 1991-92 season, which consists of three classical concerts and two pops programs, will include Soviet emigre pianist Vladimir Feltsman (Oct. 12), country singer Lee Greenwood (Dec. 12), actor Patrick Stewart (Feb. 1, 1992), cellist Magdalena Doikova (May 2) and folk artist Odetta (June 22).

Gisele Ben-Dor, resident conductor of the Houston Symphony, will appear as a guest conductor May 2. Edward Peterson, music director of the newly named Orange County Symphony, will lead the other programs.

Regarding the name change, Dvir-Djerassi said, “We were always perceived like a community orchestra. But a community-orchestra standard was not appropriate for us at the corporate-grant level or even for the California Arts Council. . . . By having a more broad name, we can attract more corporate contributions.”

Dvir-Djerassi also said that the orchestra has pared down its ranks by about 15 musicians “in order to elevate the standards of the orchestra.”

He said that the orchestra re-auditioned the string section this season and did not rehire 15 musicians, following the advice of Phillipe Bender, music director of the Orchestra Regional de Cannes-Provence, who appeared as a guest conductor in June.

“It’s sometimes difficult for us to see all the trees in the forest we have created,” Dvir-Djerassi said.

Under pressure from the California Arts Council, the orchestra rigorously separated out its classical series from its pops concerts in recent seasons and also moved away from its practice of performing excerpts from longer works. However, this strategy prompted some subscribers to cancel during the last season, according to the general manager.

“The best in subscriptions that we ever had was 750, meaning half the auditorium,” Dvir-Djerassi said. “Last year, we dropped to slightly below 500. But we did very well in single-ticket sales. Every concert we sold out, except for Korean conductor Won-Sik Lim. We sold about 75% of the auditorium” for that one, he said.

“Some people were upset at us that we didn’t have any pops works last year,” he added. “But most people are looking for serious music. We are not a pops orchestra. At least, we do not want to be known as a pops orchestra.”

The budget for the new season will be about $440,000, Dvir-Djerassi said. Ticket sales will represent about 30% of that; the remainder will come from corporate and individual grants, including some support from the city of Garden Grove.

The orchestra also will hold a six-hour telethon on Paragon Cable channel 30 on Sunday beginning at 4 p.m. “We are coming with a slight deficit (of approximately $12,000) this year, and I hope this telethon will help us to catch up,” he said.

The orchestra will offer all five concerts on a single-subscription series. Individual tickets will be sold before each event. All concerts will be held at 8 p.m. at the Don Wash Auditorium, except for the June 22 program, which will be held at Pearson Park Amphitheater in Anaheim.

The 1991-92 season:

-- Oct. 12.: Edward Peterson, conductor; Vladimir Feltsman, piano: Piano Concerto to be announced; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

-- Dec. 12: Peterson, conductor; Lee Greenwood.

-- Feb. 1: Peterson, conductor; Patrick Stewart and Friends: Overture to Bernstein’s “Candide,” excerpts from Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera,” Andre Previn’s “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor.”

-- May 2: Gisele Ben-Dor, conductor; Magdalena Doikova, cello: Overture to be announced; Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” Amy Beach’s “Gaelic” Symphony.

-- June 22: Peterson, conductor; Odetta, singer: Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait”; other works to be announced.

Subscription tickets: $45-$100. Information: (714) 534-1103.