O.C. Symphony to Appeal Rating by Arts Council Panel

The Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove voted Monday to appeal its California Arts Council panel rating on the grounds that no council official has attended a performance by the orchestra in at least four years.

A council panel, using tape-recordings to assess quality, recently gave the orchestra a 2-plus rating on a scale of 1 to 4. Typically, only groups rated 3-minus or above get grants. The orchestra received $3,387 from the state last year and applied for $29,000 for fiscal 1992-93.

“The board is very disappointed” with the rating, orchestra general manager Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi said Tuesday. “We are going to seek the help of our state representatives.”

Joanne C. Kozberg, executive director of the arts council, said that only a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of information on a grant application constitutes grounds for appeal, not a lack of so-called site visits.

An explanation of the panel’s rating will not be made public until late this month. Technically, no appeal can be filed until next month, after the full council decides whether to accept the rating and makes final grant determinations. The Orange County Philharmonic Society, whose rating this year dropped below a 4 for the first time in five years (it got a 3-plus), also plans to appeal if its rating is not raised.