APPEAL FOR $23,000 : SYMPHONY TELLS OF SCHEDULE, DEFICIT

As the Garden Grove Symphony announced its 1987-88 programming schedule this week, symphony officials also appealed for donations to help pay off a $23,000 deficit incurred during the current season.

Symphony General Manager Barbara Ness said the orchestra must raise $15,000 before the season’s final concert on June 6 and the remainder by June 30. In a letter to subscribers and the public, the symphony’s 14-member board of directors this week offered to donate $1 for every $2 contributed.

The immediate crisis is a “cash shortfall,” Ness said. “We could find funds which would not jeopardize the (June 6) concert or the new season, but we want to finish the season in the black.”

Ness attributed the first-time deficit in the symphony’s yearly budget of $126,000 to a delay in funding sought from the City of Garden Grove. “We had put in a request for help in September, 1986, which was rather quickly approved. . . . But (it) did not occur until April 7. Then they granted funds (up to a maximum amount of $38,500) for next fiscal year.”

The City of Garden Grove had given the 85-member orchestra seed money and matching funds totaling $25,000 in 1985--the year the organization was founded, according to Ness. Last year, the city donated $5,000.

Ness said she believes that operating on a financially sound basis is critical to the symphony’s future.

“I find it very important for us to not go into deficit,” she said. “A different manager and a different board might look at it differently. Maybe that’s the reason some arts organizations get into deficits of $1 million and more.”

The symphony will open its 1987-88 season Aug. 15 with a program titled “Summer Symphony in the Park.”

Edward Peterson will conduct the program, which will include music by Rossini, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, and vocal selections by soprano Rebecca Somberg.

The concert will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Village Green Park, at Euclid and Main streets in Garden Grove.

All other symphony concerts will be held at 8 p.m. at the Don Wash Auditorium in Garden Grove, except for a 4 p.m. Christmas program on Dec. 13. Dates and repertory for the remainder of season will be as follows:

--”A Halloween Treat” on Oct. 24 will feature Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” Saint-Saens’ “Dance macabre,” Dukas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” excerpts from Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique” and selections from Disney movies.

--”Seasons Greetings with Richard Carpenter” on Dec. 12 and 13 will feature Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” Carlson’s “Hanukkiyah,” singer and songwriter Richard Carpenter and the University Singers of Cal State Long Beach.

--The Jan. 30 program is to be announced.

--”Hava Nagila” on April 16 will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel with Smetana’s “Moldau,” Gold/Bennett’s “Theme from ‘Exodus,’ ” Shony Alex Braun’s “Symphony of the Holocaust” and Braun as violin soloist.

--”Mediterranean Moods” on June 11 will include “Turkish March” from Beethoven’s “Ruins of Athens,” Overture to Rossini’s “The Italian Woman in Algiers,” Ravel’s “Bolero,” “Bacchanale” from Saint-Saen’s “Samson and Delilah” and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with guitarist Joseph Alfuso. John Clark from the daytime television program “Days of Our Lives” will be guest narrator.

In the final program of the current season on June 6, pianist Milcho Leviev will appear with the Symphony performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” Orchestra conductor Peterson also will lead the Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and works by Leroy Anderson.

The 8 p.m. program will be held in the Don Wash Auditorium, 11271 Stanford Ave., Garden Grove.