Maestro Kicks Up His Heels for Orchestra

Overheard at “Two Steppin’ with the Maestro” at Music City in Fountain Valley on Tuesday night: “I’m not Patrick Swayze!”

Pacific Symphony maestro Carl St.Clair could have fooled the guests at the country party staged by the orchestra’s Classic Encounters Advisory Committee.

Not only did the Texas native execute an effortless two-step, he learned the line dance “Slappin’ Leather” in minutes.

“Get those boots up and slap ‘em!” dance instructor Tom Potts hollered at the 200-strong crowd.

St.Clair raised his right foot--shod in one of his new charcoal calfskin dust kickers--and slapped it hard. Then he did it again. And again.

He looked like he’d done it a thousand times.

“The guy’s a natural,” said a line-dancin’ greenhorn who stood on the sidelines.

Being raised in Texas helps, St.Clair said. “In high school on a Friday or Saturday night, you were expected to go to country-Western dances.

“You didn’t even think about going to the movies or sitting in a car. With a date, it was a dance or she’d say ‘take me home please .’ ”

Wearing boots with a perfect fit also helps, he said. “You know what they say about breaking in boots? Forget it! If they don’t fit when you try them on, don’t buy them.”

But even more than the chance to dance, the 40-year-old maestro enjoyed meeting the fans of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.

“I rarely get to talk to them,” he said, taking a breather outside the club. “The members of this Classic Encounters group have their parties before my concerts--when I’m doing my pre-concert rituals, the things one does to prepare.”

Before the party was over, St.Clair had signed a few autographs and let out a yelp of surprise when a former Texas University schoolmate introduced herself.

“Kathleen! Kathleen!” St.Clair exclaimed, when Kathleen Scott of Huntington Beach--a professional-singer-turned-vocal- coach--said howdy to the chum she hadn’t seen since 1976.

Before their encounter, Scott confided St.Clair had been “a quiet, shy student--a serious musician.”

Said St.Clair: “Kathleen was one of the prima divas. . . . We had the most fabulous time!”

Overseeing the event was Buck Buchhagen, chairman of the Classic Encounters Advisory Committee--an orchestra support group for singles. “I can’t get over the success of this party,” he said. “The idea for it came about at one of our monthly meetings.

“Someone suggested we do a summer party. Then someone suggested we make it a country-Western affair. Then we learned Carl St.Clair is a country-Western aficionado. So I said, ‘Why not do Two-Steppin’ with the Maestro?’ ”

Why not indeed.