Early years

Pacific Symphony was founded in 1979 by Keith Clark, who was a former student-assistant conductor of Roger Wagner at the Los Angeles Master Chorale,^[2] and the principal guest conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Clark began with the orchestra in his home kitchen in Fullerton, California with a grant of $2,000 and personal appeals to local musicians.^[1] The musicians who comprised the orchestra were mainly professional freelance musicians from Southern California who performed in the area's movie studios, universities, and other regional performing arts organizations. Many of these musicians were also former concertmasters, associate concertmasters, and players from prominent orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.^[3][4] Clark became the orchestra's first music director.

Pacific Symphony's first performance was in December 1979, at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton, California. By 1981, the orchestra played its concerts at the "Good Time Theater" at Knott's Berry Farm to a fanbase of 3,000 people. In 1983, the orchestra moved its concerts to the Santa Ana High School auditorium, made its first recording, and hired a full-time manager. In the same year, they performed for their first time at the Music Center of Los Angeles County as part of the City of Los Angeles' bicentennial celebrations.^[1][4]

James Chute, in a commentary for The Orange County Register, wrote:

[T]he orchestra's growth continued, as Clark's programs at Santa Ana High School offered an engaging mixture of old and new works, especially American works. The ensemble's recordings of music by Copland, Barber, Ives and Harris were enthusiastically received, while its American music programs attracted large audiences by offering apple pie at intermission and world premieres by respected American composers such as Donald Erb.^[4]

Financial problems and Clark's ousting

In 1986, the orchestra became one of the resident companies at the new Orange County Performing Arts Center and gave its first concerts there in October of that same year. Originally, the Center had refused residency to the orchestra, citing elitism from the Pacific Symphony in regards to its membership. However, the Center eventually relented and granted the Pacific Symphony – as well as other regional arts organizations – residency, largely due to Clark's continued lobbying efforts.^[4] This move led to a substantial increase in its fanbase, but also a doubling of the orchestra's budget. Consequently, the orchestra soon experienced financial difficulties, which was heightened by their loss of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In June 1987, the orchestra hired Louis Spisto, a marketing director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, as its new executive director. Within months, Clark and Spisto began to clash. Prior to Spisto's arrival, Clark had already developed a difficult reputation with some of the orchestra's board of directors and the orchestra's four prior executive directors, all of whom had resigned after relatively short tenures (one as short as six weeks).

James Chute, writing in The Orange County Register, described the situation:

The standard of a respectable Clark performance seemed to be that he was prepared and that he didn't get lost. Occasionally he went further, as he did most recently in a Jan. 21, 1988 program of Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. But too often, Clark's performances sounded more like readings than interpretations, and sometimes bad readings, such as his Oct. 2, 1986 opening concert in the center, which was drubbed by critics. The opposition to Clark, within the orchestra, according to musicians, has been vociferous but only talked about privately. Most musicians, essentially employed at Clark's pleasure, have no job security in the Pacific Symphony and those who invoked his displeasure have, according to musicians, been pulled arbitrarily from concerts.^[1]

In October 1987, Clark signed a one-year contract, giving him a substantial pay raise while also establishing an artistic review process that the board would use to determine the renewal of the contract.^[4] By February 1988, Spisto helped to engineer a vote by the orchestra's board on whether or not to renew Clark's contract as music director through the end of his existing contract. In a vote of 12–11, the board voted against retaining Clark; three days later, Clark tendered his resignation, to take effect at the end of the 1988–89 season.^[5]

Clark's last season

Keith Clark continued to conduct the orchestra through its 1988–1989 season. As part of the terms of his resignation, he was given nine months of severance pay and he still maintained the power to hire and fire musicians at his sole discretion. "I will continue as music director in every sense of that word", Clark said.^[2][6]

New musician's contract

During this time the orchestra and Spisto began a transformational period, with aspirations of attaining world-class status. The orchestra's first move was to sign the musicians to a traditional orchestra contract, complete with tenure rights in line with typical American Federation of Musicians agreements. While critics frequently assailed Clark's podium leadership, the musicians themselves were given much credit. Establishing tenure helped to give the orchestra a more stable reputation.

"Tenure will put to rest the notion that this is a pick-up orchestra", Spisto said. "It will also give the players a sense of security and a better understanding that they are a major part of our future."^[3]

Search for a new music director

In May 1988, Kazimierz Kord, the then music director of the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, was named Principal Guest Conductor and Music Advisor for the 1989–1990 season.

During this time the orchestra also began its search for a permanent music director. Some established conductors, including: Lawrence Foster, Sergiu Comissiona, Zdeněk Mácal, and Stuart Challender, were considered along with lesser known names, such as Christopher Seaman, Richard Buckley, Vakhtang Jordania, Toshiyuki Shimada, and Carl St.Clair. Kord repeatedly said that despite his new titled position, he was not a candidate.^[7]

The board originally wanted a strong musician that would also be willing to spend significant time with the greater Orange County community. Zdeněk Mácal was considered a front-runner, as he was a resident nearby in Laguna Niguel in addition to being a conductor with a strong resume. However, by that time he already had a number of other positions to his name, and his busy schedule was thought to be a likely deterrent. Mácal pulled himself out of the running before the 1989–90 season began.^[7]

In December 1989, the orchestra offered Lawrence Foster – the odds-on favorite – the position of music director. Foster accepted, in principle. Contract negotiations began, and Foster began planning his schedule and the orchestra's programs for the coming years. However, in February 1990, Foster revealed that the offer had been rescinded, largely due to concerns about his salary and level of commitment:^[8][9]

"I gave them a total package", Foster said. "I was given to understand that the board regarded it as too exorbitant." ... "I am brokenhearted", he added. "From the very beginning I became extremely excited about the project... But that is their right. It is their organization. I can't do anything about it." ... Besides the salary issue, Foster said, "There was some distrust about my commitment to building the orchestra, that I am regarded as a European person and would not be sufficiently committed here."^[9] "I think they wanted more time, but it was impossible with my family commitments and my other activities", Foster said. "And I told them I wasn't able to move to Orange County. With my work in Europe, that would have been impossible. But my wife and I had gotten so excited about the possibility that we were considering moving back to the United States in a couple of years, to New York, so we could be midway between Southern California and Europe."^[8]

The news of the orchestra's decision to pull Foster's offer came on the heels of Carl St.Clair's debut with the orchestra on January 31 and February 1. By all accounts, the concerts went well; despite changes in programs, concert soloists, and concertmasters, his conducting was well received by musicians, board, and audience alike. Moreover, he had indicated a willingness to move to Orange County and seemed enthusiastic about being a part of the county's burgeoning arts and cultural scene.^[10]

On February 26, 1990, the orchestra named Carl St.Clair as its second music director, effective October 1 of that year.