New West Symphony Upbeat

Many orchestras have been singing the blues lately.

Earlier this month, the San Jose Symphony announced its bankruptcy, and even highly respected American orchestras such as those in Chicago and Cleveland have felt the sting of multimillion-dollar deficits.

But Ventura County’s New West Symphony is holding its own against the tide, officials say, even sailing into its eighth season with the possibility of a surplus.

The challenge now is less about paying the piper than about picking the tune.

From his home near Toronto, founding music director Boris Brott called the orchestra’s relative health “an interesting dilemma.”

“What do we do?” he asked, pondering a problem that some less financially stable groups wouldn’t mind having. “Do we increase the number of main series concerts or do more satellite, boutique programming? Do we program a series of contemporary concerts or do pops concerts?”

Whatever direction New West takes, Brott will rely heavily on an important new player, recently hired executive director Kenneth Hopper. In charge of the orchestra’s business side, Hopper said its financial position has been aided by some staff downsizing and a rearrangement of rehearsal time.

“I think for an orchestra that’s only 7 1/2 years old, a close-to-$2 million budget is pretty good,” said Hopper, who has held similar jobs in Westfield, N.J., and Des Moines.

Hopper said the group’s audience will only grow.

“More and more people are hearing about us in the San Fernando Valley and are choosing to come in this direction for their orchestra concerts,” he said.

The New West saga has at times been turbulent, starting with its birth in the merger of the Ventura County and the Conejo Valley symphonies. Some musicians who played with those groups are still rankled by competition for New West slots with musicians from outside the area.

But Brott is quick to point out that one source of New West’s strength is its proximity to Los Angeles, home to some of the finest classical musicians in the world.

Many of New West’s musicians make a living in studios, playing for films and doing other commercial work. But they relish the opportunity to play orchestral music.

“The quality of the playing overall has been a great joy for me to witness and be a part of,” said Brott, a former student of Leonard Bernstein who has served as guest conductor to orchestras around the world.

“The players continue to improve, as does the quality of the ensemble, which is kind of amazing because we don’t play together all the time.”

Paradoxically, the part-time nature of the orchestra, which will present six concerts in the 2002-2003 season, helps ensure a higher caliber of player, Brott said.

“When you start to get permanent, you start to lose the potential to have the very best people, because those very best people need their freedom in order to really earn a living,” he said.

January’s New West agenda leans toward youth.

The annual Discovery Artists Concert program, on Jan. 17 and 18, will feature young soloists from the area, and the Symphonic Adventures concerts the week of Jan. 21 in Oxnard will offer a taste of classical music to thousands of Ventura County schoolchildren.

Later in the season, the symphony will be host to a number of renowned guest soloists, including pianists Lorin Hollander and Anton Kuerti and organist Frederick Swann. The season finale includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with the joined forces of the Ventura County Master Chorale and Los Robles Master Chorale.