Out of Breath : Fete Has St. Clair Blowing Out Candles All Over Town

“I have to blow all of that out?”

Extinguishing 40 blazing candles was almost more than Pacific Symphony maestro Carl St. Clair could handle on Saturday when he was feted at a birthday bash played out in three South County homes.

He huffed, puffed, then huffed again. But one taper continued to flicker on the confection that had been rolled into the marble-paved rotunda of Dorothy and Patrick Hurley’s Harbor Ridge mansion in Newport Beach.

“So, now I know one thing that gets difficult when you get older,” St. Clair said, laughing along with 75 members of the symphony’s Maestro Society.

Afterward, Pacific Symphony director Louis Spisto, 35, presented the boyish-looking St. Clair with a framed photograph of the orchestra performing on stage at Segerstrom Hall.

“You have no idea what a responsibility it is to look at this photograph,” said St. Clair, who recently signed a five-year contract with the symphony. “Do you know how many years of training is represented on that stage? How many cultures? How many millions of dollars worth of instruments?

“I’m humbled not by turning 40, but by this, my friends. And this is what I promise I will give my energy to while I’m in your midst.”

St. Clair’s remarks were the highlight of a progressive dinner for symphony donors that began with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in Velma and Jim Emmi’s Corona del Mar home, continued with dinner--catered by Bistro 201--in the English manor-style digs of Frances (an English-born interior designer, she’s a chum of “Fergie,” the Duchess of York) and Rich Gadbois in Corona del Mar, and ended at the Hurleys (he owns the booming Haagen-Dazs franchise at South Coast Plaza).

The party buzz: word that performing arts activist Janice Johnson of Laguna Beach has been named president of the Pacific Symphony board. (“She has the energy of 10 people,” said Spisto.)

“I’m excited about working with Louis Spisto and Carl St. Clair,” said Johnson, who attended the affair with husband Roger Johnson, also a board member.

“They are two forward-looking young men. That’s why I decided to take the job.”

Her goal during her tenure, she said, is to help the symphony become Orange County’s own (“Every major culture center in the world has a symphony, and if we don’t have one, the Performing Arts Center will continue to be just a booking center”) and to help it become nationally recognized. “National recognition will help us attract the finest musicians,” she said.

Overheard: Roger Johnson--who likes to call St. Clair a “young Lenny Bernstein”--and St. Clair discussing their dream of bringing an appreciation of classical music to a generation raised on rock-radio.

Their plan: Provide concerts, possibly beginning with the symphony’s 1993-94 season, that present cross-over artists (musical artists who are as proficient on a classical stage as, say, on a jazz or rock-and-roll stage) performing with the symphony. (Picture Herbie Hancock soloing with the symphony. Picture the symphony doing a gig with the Moody Blues. You heard it here.)

“There are many pop artists who are classically trained,” Roger Johnson said. “Those artists could provide a bridge for us to help a whole generation appreciate classical music.”

Also among party-goers were Fullerton residents Dr. Maurice Mulville and his wife, Marcy, the symphony’s outgoing board chairwoman. Last week, Marcy--a founder of the symphony in 1978--was honored at a gala reception at the Turnip Rose Promenade in Santa Ana followed by a concert in her honor at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“Marcy took the orchestra from being a good community orchestra to one on the verge of national recognition,” Spisto said. “We will be forever grateful.”

Such a scene: The scene shop at South Coast Repertory provided the backdrop for a dinner party Friday night preceding the opening performance of Alan Ayckbourn’s tragicomedy “Woman in Mind.” The theater’s corporate donors dined on pasta and Caesar salad among the shop’s work benches, hard hats and paint buckets. Paintings from “School for Scandal” and “Hard Times” graced the walls. Champagne was proffered from a jagged-edge plywood tray.

“It’s fun being in here,” said SCR board member Bruce Stump. “This is a great inside view.”

Said Hal Schultz, chairman of SCR’s corporate committee: “It’s fitting that we meet tonight in the scene shop of one of the country’s finest producing theaters. . . . We in the business world must continue to value what is created here for the enrichment of the community.” Among corporations represented were Coopers & Lybrand, IBM, Price Waterhouse, American Express, Powerplant Specialists, Furon, Bank of the West, Kaiser Permanente and Toyota Motors, U.S.A.

On Friday night, founding members of SCR’s newest support group--Supporting Cast--also enjoyed a party in the scene shop. About 80 business professionals sipped cocktails and nibbled on appetizers before watching the final preview performance of “Woman in Mind.” Janet Peters is the group’s president. Founding members include Kris Davis, Kennon Earl, Rob Faulk, Veronica Gray and Baret Walker.

Book & Author Luncheon: And you thought Orange County’s society set just liked to party. Think again. More than 700 women (and a sprinkling of men) crowded the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Irvine last week to attend The Times Orange County’s annual Book & Author Luncheon.

On the menu, besides broiled chicken breast and chocolate mousse, were authors David Savage (“Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court’), television news journalist Robert MacNeil (“The Burden of Desire”) and Frank Miller (“Casablanca: As Time Goes By”).

“Oh! This went too quickly,” said performing arts supporter Lee Merrick, who sat at a table with United Way director Merritt Johnson, Fiona Petersen and Kathy Merriman. “I can’t wait until next year.” Make those reservations early. This one is always a sellout.