Music Center Turns to Arts World for Leader : Culture: The board unanimously approves Shelton Stanfill as president. He has been head of Wolf Trap Foundation in Virginia.

After two years of turmoil, the Music Center of Los Angeles County named the head of a prominent East Coast performing arts theater as its new president Monday.

Shelton G. Stanfill, president and chief executive officer of Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, was unanimously approved by the center board after a nationwide search and review of 151 candidates. Stanfill is expected to assume the $190,000-a-year post before the end of the year.

Since 1988, Stanfill has headed Virginia-based Wolf Trap, a national park facility that produces outdoor and indoor performances near Washington. He previously served as executive director of the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, where he was responsible for management and development of the performing arts. He also was director of the National Arts Festival for the Winter Olympics in 1972.

Reached at home in Virginia, Stanfill said: “I am looking forward to . . . working with one of America’s major cultural institutions. . . . It will be a pleasurable challenge.” The 53-year-old Colorado native said he also is looking forward to coming back West.

His appointment follows the most difficult period in the Music Center’s three decades, one marred by financial struggles and controversy surrounding former President Esther Wachtell. In recent years, the center has been forced to reduce its fund-raising goals and this year failed to make its $14.5-million target.

Stanfill will oversee the fund-raising arm for the Downtown performing arts complex’s resident companies--the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Music Center Opera.

The complex soon will also include the $200-million Walt Disney Concert Hall, a new home for the Philharmonic slated to open in 1997.

Robert B. Egelston, Music Center chairman and acting president, said the center’s decision to appoint a figure from the arts world, rather than someone whose experience is limited to fund raising, signals a change of direction. The center long has been as much a symbol of social prestige as a hub of artistic activity.

“We all decided that we wanted an arts leader,” Egelston said. “What we really need here is someone who can build this institution. The heads of our resident companies said: ‘We want someone we can relate to.’ ”

Directors of the center’s resident companies expressed optimism at the appointment. Gordon Davidson, artistic director-producer of Center Theatre Group, said: “I think he combines . . . a strong sense of administrative leadership and some considerable experience with fund raising.

“He has a real knowledge of the overall arts scene in America, and as it pertains to Los Angeles--that is, the challenges of a cultural center and what he can do to help the resident companies fulfill their mission, as well as expand the opportunities for utilization of the Music Center.”

Peter Hemmings, executive director of the Music Center Opera, said: “I know (Stanfill) as professional expert and I think it’s a splendid appointment. I look forward to working with him.

“He’s got substantial fund-raising experience,” Hemmings added.

Peter Sellars, artistic director of the Los Angeles Festival and a salaried consultant to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said he did not know Stanfill personally, but added: “I’m all in favor of the Music Center becoming a stronger artistic presence, and more diverse, and if that’s what’s in the cards (with Stanfill’s appointment), that is greatly to be wished. Thank goodness!”

Egelston said the naming of a new president marks the next phase in a healing process at the Music Center, whose image has been tarnished by controversies over accounting and spending practices.

In 1991, officials erroneously announced that they had reached their $17-million fund-raising goal. They later disclosed that the center had fallen $1.3 million short of the goal, which prompted staff changes and accounting reforms.

In July, 1992, the former vice president in charge of finances, James B. Black, who had been placed on unpaid leave, said he was paid $150,000 in salary and benefits after he alleged that he was made a scapegoat for the center’s financial problems. Black said both he and then-President Wachtell were equally responsible for the problems.

In December, 1992, Wachtell announced that she would step down from the $200,000-a-year post July 15, 1993. Wachtell said later that she made her decision because she could not continue to work under a “cloud” of allegations. She reached a $200,000 resignation agreement with the center.

Wachtell’s presence at the Music Center remained controversial. According to center records and interviews, she repeatedly asked the nonprofit arts center to reimburse her for political contributions, an action that could have jeopardized the center’s tax-exempt status. Wachtell denied the allegation and said she never was reimbursed.

The Music Center initiated an exhaustive search of its records for evidence of reimbursement after inquiries by reporters. Although there was no evidence of direct reimbursement, the inquiry was inconclusive, according to board members.

The announcement of Wachtell’s resignation said she would remain on the board of directors through 1996 and continue to serve on the Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee and the Dorothy B. Chandler Awards Committee.

But Egelston said Wachtell is no longer involved with Disney Hall or the Chandler awards, although she remains on the board of directors and is available to the center as a consultant.

Egelston, 62, of Pasadena, former chairman of the Capital Group money management firm, has serving as acting president of the center on a volunteer basis since July 15.

He praised Wachtell’s role in building the center and said the center’s fund-raising difficulties rest more with the economy than any concern about the center’s management.

Egelston said the problems are “essentially behind us. I think here is a thing called old news, and that is old news.”

Reached Monday, Wachtell declined comment on Stanfill’s appointment, saying: “All I can say is I wish him the very best of luck.”

Also on Monday, the Music Center announced that it had missed its 1992-93 fund-raising goal of $14.5 million, raising $12.89 million. The shortfall will result in a 9% cut to the predicted allocations to the resident companies.