Nibbles and Bits

The Pacific Symphony has formed a search committee to find a replacement for executive director Louis G. Spisto, who leaves March 6 to become president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall. The committee, which was scheduled to meet for the first time Tuesday, will be chaired by board president Janice M. Johnson and include board members John Daniels, Frances Bass-Dudley, Douglas K. Freeman, Rondell B. Hanson, Roger W. Johnson, Ronna Kelly, Phillip N. Lyons and John R. Stahr. Once finalists have been selected, an advisory committee will assist in the hiring process. This body will consist of Pacific music director Carl St.Clair; Sharon Lesk and Ellis Stern, from the Leo Freedman Foundation; philanthropist William J. Gillespie; Pacific principal violist Robert Becker, and Spisto. No date has been set to find Spisto’s replacement, according to an orchestra spokesperson. . . . In other Pacific Symphony-related news, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart has been named music director of the Utah Symphony. St.Clair was one of 12 finalists for the post.

Richard Larkin, vice president of development at Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, has resigned to take a similar post at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, which is scheduled to open in June, a Bowers spokesman said. Larkin, who will start his new job later this month, joined Bowers in August, 1996, succeeding Patricia House. The museum has not named a replacement and may divide the position by appointing a vice president of development and a vice president of marketing and sales, the spokesman said.

Compiled by Ken Williams