Classically Trained: Pacific Chorale CEO elected to state board
The president and chief executive of the Pacific Chorale was elected last week to head the board of directors for the Assn. of California Symphony Orchestras.
Beginning Oct. 1, Kelly Ruggirello will serve her one-year volunteer term as president of ACSO’s 21-member board, according to a Chorale press release.
The nonprofit ACSO, founded in 1969, provides varied services throughout the state to classical music organizations, including orchestras, choruses, festivals, symphony leagues and guilds. It has more than 400 members.
“As a passionate advocate for and grateful recipient of the transformative power of music, I enthusiastically embrace my new role,” Ruggirello said in a prepared statement. “I look forward to working with the exemplary staff and board to assist our state’s musical organizations in achieving their dreams.”
Ruggirello has headed the Pacific Chorale since 1994. Her arts management experience of nearly 25 years includes working in administrative roles at the Pacific Symphony, the Orange County School of the Arts and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
*
Pacific Symphony to play Beethoven works
Any time is a good time for Beethoven, even though his old-school tunes won’t exactly be blaring from many radios nestled on Orange County’s sandy coastline this summer.
That said, the Pacific Symphony will remind of us his greatness with its performance of two of his standards — the Symphony No. 7 and Piano Concerto No. 5 — at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, in Irvine. There will also encore choices to be voted upon by the audience.
Carl St.Clair will conduct and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is the featured soloist. It will be the Juilliard-trained musician’s first appearance with the Pacific Symphony since 2008.
Tickets to the concert start at $25. Children younger than 14 can get half-price seats for most sections when an adult ticket is bought.
Attendees can come as early as 5:30 to picnic as well.
For more information, call the symphony at (714) 755-5799 or visit https://www.pacificsymphony.org.
During the concert, symphony officials will also be heralding the expansion of Heartstrings, the orchestra’s community outreach program that gives free tickets to concerts and provides other activities for many of the county’s underserved residents.
The symphony is offering 250 free tickets to its 16 Heartstrings social service partners — including Costa Mesa-based nonprofits Girls Inc. and Working Wardrobes — according to a symphony press release. The attendees will also have a private reception.
“With the recent expansion, we’ve been able to reach an even broader spectrum of the Orange County community and to support our partner organizations in their wonderful and vitally important work,” Pam Blaine, the symphony’s vice president of education and community engagement, said in a prepared statement. “We’re extremely pleased to be able to expand and diversify the program even more this coming season by welcoming veterans and seniors into our Heartstrings family.”
BRADLEY ZINT is a classically trained musician and a copy editor for the Daily Pilot. Email him story ideas at bradley.zint@latimes.com or follow him on Twitter @BradleyZint.
