NEWS ANALYSIS : New Leaders Must Assess Directions of O.C. Arts Institutions

The announcements of new top executives for both the Orange County Philharmonic Society and the Orange County Performing Arts Center raise questions of how the new arrivals will alter the direction of the arts organizations.

Tom Tomlinson, who will take the reins at the arts center in Costa Mesa, says “it’s too early to tell” what he’ll do when he takes over in October and has the chance “to assess the situation.”

But one thing seems certain: Any policy changes he does make are bound to affect the tenor of the county’s cultural climate simply because of the influence wielded by the 7-year-old center and the size of its budget.

With annual expenditures of $17.9 million, the Performing Arts Center dwarfs all other cultural institutions in the county--including its three biggest renters combined (the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific and the Philharmonic Society).

Even compared to the 30-year-old South Coast Repertory, its Tony Award-winning neighbor just across the street in Costa Mesa and the one local cultural institution with any sort of national reputation, the center is a behemoth. SCR had a $5.8-million budget last year.

Because of tough economic times, the competition for private donations has become stiffer than ever and Tomlinson’s efforts, given the center’s huge fund-raising needs, doubtless will focus at least partly on money. Last year, for example, the center needed $5 million in private donations to meet its budget projection, despite a rise in average paid attendance for its own presentations from 84% in 1991 to 89%.

But depth of financing is not the only measure of local cultural influence.

Departing Performing Arts Center President Thomas R. Kendrick long ago spelled out a programming policy devoted to what he called “the four disciplines”--musical theater, dance, opera and classical music. Over the years that policy clearly has proven effective, not only in drawing crowds to the center but also in maintaining a conservative institutional identity that has helped to form the center’s fund-raising base.

What it has failed to do, though, is to mobilize community artists as a haven for new work or to inspire national artists to present their work in any significant numbers. The center has also taken a less-than-active leadership role in the local arts community, remaining largely quiet in such areas as arts education and events promoting AIDS awareness.

The center’s strongest suit so far has been its classical dance series, which has included such companies as the Kirov Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and the New York City Ballet. There have been some major premieres, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov’s staging of “Swan Lake” for American Ballet Theatre, seen here in 1988. And the center will be getting the American Ballet Theatre’s new “Nutcracker” in December.

But these hardly are artistic ventures on the cutting edge of the contemporary sensibility. And the center, a $73-million hall, has yet to underwrite any musical work since commissioning William Kraft’s short fanfare for the center’s opening in 1986.

The Performing Arts Center has moved tentatively beyond its “four disciplines,” presenting its first modern dance troupe, the Martha Graham Dance Company, early in 1991 and taking a first step into the pop arena last month with a concert by Art Garfunkel. It has also presented a limited jazz series in recent years, concentrating primarily on middle-of-the-road artists.

Tomlinson will have to decide whether to expand these efforts or to go with the tried and true. Warren Sumners, president of the Cincinnati Assn. for the Performing Arts, worked with Tomlinson on the board of the international Assn. for Performing Arts Presenters and calls him a “cutting-edge” administrator.

“I think Tomlinson is the kind who always wants to see what’s new and emerging. He’s very skilled at that,” Sumners said.

Tomlinson will also have to decide whether there is a place at the center for more works that reach beyond a Western/European cultural orientation and perhaps better reflect the county’s growing ethnic diversity.

The role of ethnic programming became an issue early this year when Kendrick’s vision for the center clashed with the programming ideas of departed Orange County Philharmonic Society Executive Director Erich Vollmer. The disagreement started when Vollmer began booking such attractions as the Chieftains, Ireland’s foremost group of traditional musicians, and the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico.

Kendrick apparently wanted the Philharmonic Society to stick to what he considered its mandate to present orchestras--and orchestras only. Vollmer wanted to reach new audiences. In one sense, Vollmer won: Both the Chieftains and the Ballet Folklorico were sellouts. But the struggle between the two men spilled over into acrimonious public controversy, and the center board eventually intervened to allow the Chieftains and non-traditional programming back next season.

The arts center board left the issue open, however, when it said that it was granting permission for the 1993-94 season only. Perhaps the fact that both the center and the Philharmonic Society are gaining new executives will offer the organizations a chance to give their relationship a fresh start.

Dean Corey, the new Philharmonic Society director, has said he expects to continue Vollmer’s policy of booking ethnic dance and similar attractions that center officials have considered non-classical. “Evidently it’s been successful” with audiences, Corey said. “It does bring in new audiences.”

Meanwhile, Corey faces many challenges of his own. Vollmer was only the second executive director of an organization that until 1982 managed to run on stupendous volunteer effort.

Actually, it still does. There are 1,600 members of its Women’s Committees, whose fund-raising and organizational work makes possible the programs that reach almost 300,000 children on an annual basis. Corey must woo and win the support of these women if he is to succeed in his position; he cannot underestimate the dedication, loyalty and power of these volunteers.

He may have ideas about new programs for children, although the Philharmonic Society’s efforts are among the most generally unsung success stories in Orange County. A bigger question will be whether to continue the Vollmer legacy of expanding program offerings, assuming that he has the finances to do so.

Vollmer inherited his job in 1984 from Robert Elias, the organization’s first full-time paid staff person, who held the position for about two years. Almost immediately, Vollmer began making changes.

He multiplied the number of concerts and diversified the offerings, taking the society from a major importer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to a presenter of most of the world’s leading orchestras.

He initiated new chamber music programs and recital series of major and younger artists, and galvanized the idea of co-hosting with UC Irvine and the Performing Arts Center a three-week summer music festival with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the Miami-based New World Symphony. Not all these efforts worked out financially, although artistically they did fine.