FIRST SEASON AT ARTS CENTER : PACIFIC SYMPHONY ARTISTS LISTED

The Orange County Pacific Symphony will present violinist Henryk Szeryng, trumpeter Maurice Andre and pianist-conductor Lukas Foss in the orchestra’s first season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The 3,000-seat, multipurpose hall is scheduled to open Sept. 29.

The orchestra’s 16-performance classical subscription series, which is set to start Oct. 2, will also mark the return appearances of violinist Ruggiero Rucci, pianist John Browning and cellist Janos Starker.

A work by Karel Husa commissioned by the Pacific Symphony will be given its premiere performances, May 7 and 8, and another world premiere, of a concerto for double bass and orchestra by Lalo Schifrin is scheduled, March 19.

Programming details for the series were announced Tuesday by Keith Clark, music director of the 85-member professional ensemble, at a press conference held at the orchestra’s new headquarters in Santa Ana.

Contralto Maureen Forrester will be soloist for the April 9 program, in Mahler’s Third Symphony. Other orchestral pieces during the series will include works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Respighi and Richard Strauss.

The opening classical-series program Oct. 2 and 3 will present Szeryng in Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Oct. 22 and 23, pianist Foss, with soprano Evelyn de la Rosa, actor Michael Wager and the Pacific Chorale, will perform in a Leonard Bernstein program.

The schedule for other soloists will include cellist Starker, Nov. 5 and 6; pianist Browning, Dec. 3 and 4; violinist Ricci, Jan. 28 and 29, and trumpeter Andre, March 17. Double bassist Gary Karr will be the the soloist in Schifrin’s concerto, March 19.

The 1986-87 Orange County Center season will be the orchestra’s most extensive yet, and will include a previously announced 10-performance pops series. This series starts Oct. 25 with Lukas conducting a “Bernstein on Broadway” night, followed by programs with Henry Mancini, Shirley Jones, Michel Legrand, Doc Severinson and Mel Torme.

Dates for a four-performance youth matinee series, also at the new center, are to be announced later, Clark said.

The Pacific Symphony is collaborating with the Santa Ana-based Pacific Chorale in several other center concerts presented separately by the chorale and by the Orange County Philharmonic Society, according to Clark.

Clark said the Pacific Symphony administrative staff has been expanded to 10 full-time members, including Luke Bandle, newly named general director of marketing. She has held several arts administrative posts, including those with the Cultural Foundation in San Fernando Valley, Hult Center in Eugene, Ore., and the Washington (D.C.) Opera.

No successor is being sought at this time to fill the executive director’s post, Clark said. The top staff post has been vacant since November, when Wesley Brustad quit after 3 1/2 months to take a similar post with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.