STAR-BULLETIN / 2001 Matt Catingub says his living in Los Angeles will help him draw artists to perform with the Honolulu Symphony Pops.

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Pops conductor
maintains he’s
departed but not gone

L.A. resident Catingub
is under consideration for
a job in Nashville

Matt Catingub, the Honolulu Symphony's Pops conductor, wants to make a few things "perfectly clear" about his recent move to Los Angeles.

"Yes, I've moved ... for personal and professional reasons, but I'm not leaving the Honolulu Symphony," he said. "Yes, I'm being considered for the Nashville Symphony's Pop director position, but I'm not leaving the Honolulu Symphony."

Amidst the backdrop of the current turmoil in the symphony's board room and executive offices, Catingub and Nashville Symphony president/CEO Alan Valentine said the Honolulu conductor applied for the job more than a year ago, after being contacted by the Nashville organization. Catingub informed the orchestra about his move Wednesday.

"My decision to move to L.A. or work in Nashville (as well as in Honolulu) has nothing to do with what's happening with the symphony right now," Catingub said. "I don't get involved in that. I work with getting performers and making music; that's my job."

Catingub sold his Central Oahu home this month and has already moved into a Simi Valley home near the San Fernando Valley, but he's no stranger to long-distance commutes. In his first three seasons with the symphony, he lived in L.A. Outgoing musical director Samuel Wong was also the conductor of the Hong Kong Symphony and lived in New York while he worked here.

Since 2003, Catingub has worked in Los Angeles about 12 weeks a year. Earlier this year, he appeared as a band member in the George Clooney film "Good Night and Good Luck." In July, Catingub will be in L.A. recording the film's soundtrack.

"For me, working in L.A. I think will help the profile of the Honolulu Symphony. (I'll be) in the mainstream of the entertainment business and can have direct contact with artists we would like to perform with our orchestra," he said.

The Nashville position is still open, and Valentine said a decision on who will be its next Pops conductor will be made in June.

"What's great is that Nashville is one of the very few orchestras that are in the black and doing very, very well," Catingub said. "Nashville is the hotbed of music, and it's not just country."

The organization has a $111 million endowment, a $12 million annual budget and is building a new $120 million music center.

The symphony is already losing one of its top executives to Nashville in July when Jim Mancuso, vice president of orchestra operations, becomes that organization's manager of Pops and Special Programs.

Mancuso, who applied for the newly created position in February, before the Honolulu Symphony's problems became known, was selected from 100 candidates, Valentine said. There's no connection between Catingub's application and Mancuso's hiring, he said.

Mancuso, who joined the Honolulu Symphony in 1997, also said his departure has nothing to do with current problems involving the resignation of symphony President Steve Bloom in April, followed by the resignations of three prominent board members this month: Vicky Cayetano, Mike O'Neill and Mike Fisch.

A major concern of the musicians, sources say, is the symphony's financial deficit, which Bloom said is about 4 percent of its annual budget, or $240,000. But that figure increased a few weeks ago to more than $500,000 when anticipated gifts didn't come through and recent concerts didn't sell as well as anticipated, Bloom said.

"This week, we've confirmed some gifts, bringing us back to the anticipated $240,000 shortfall ... though we're trying to do everything possible to close that gap" by the end of the fiscal year, June 30, Bloom said.

Michael Largarticha, president of the Musicians Association of Hawaii, in a news release Thursday, said, "This is a very difficult, unsettling situation for us all individually and collectively.

"It would serve no useful purpose for the musicians to comment further about these matters, over which they have little or no control," he said.

Largarticha did not return telephone calls to his office.