Garden Grove, Bulgarian Conductors Will Switch Places

In a new exchange program, conductors of the Garden Grove Symphony and the Pazardjik Philharmonic of Bulgaria will swap roles for two concerts.

Garden Grove’s Edward Peterson will conduct the Pazardjik Philharmonic in Bulgaria on Dec. 2, 1988, and Pazardjik conductor Ivan Spassov will lead the Garden Grove Symphony in Orange County in October, 1989.

Peterson plans to take an all-American program to Bulgaria. Works will include Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” the Overture to Bernstein’s “Candide” and excerpts from Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”

Pazardjik, who is a composer as well as a conductor, will lead the Garden Grove Symphony in his own compositions and works by other Bulgarian and European composers.

Each conductor will spend about 10 days in the other’s city as part of the exchange program, called “When East Meets West.”

Costs will be borne by each orchestra. The Doubletree Hotel in Orange will underwrite a reception for Pazardjik.

In other Garden Grove symphony news, the symphony will sponsor a monthlong exhibition of Israeli art from March 20 to April 22 at the Mills House Municipal Art Gallery in Garden Grove in conjunction with the orchestra’s April 16 concert at the Don Walsh Auditorium.

The concert will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.

The exhibition will include 41 paintings by Israeli artists and “A Holocaust Exhibit,” a private collection of Holocaust-related memorabilia, photos and articles. Admission will be free.

An auction of selected art will be held May 1. Proceeds will benefit the Garden Grove Symphony and the Children’s Foundation in Israel.