Whether South Florida concert-goers will be able to attend the Concert Association of Florida's classical music and dance performances at Miami's performing arts center hangs in the balance of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The Concert Association of Florida filed suit against the Performing Arts Trust and the Performing Arts Foundation in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, primarily seeking to regain its status as a resident company, with discount rental and preferential booking privileges.

It also asks the court to stop the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts from putting on its own competing classical music concerts during the 2010-2011 season, and to turn over funds collected on its behalf for ticket sales for prior concerts.

The suit is the latest skirmish in the battle between the Performing Arts Center's Trust, the independent board that manages the publicly owned Arsht Center, and the Concert Association -- which has just emerged from bankruptcy.

``We want to put [the Concert Association] back right where it was prior to the bankruptcy,'' said Concert Association Director P. Daniel Orlich.

The clash centers around the Concert Association's standing at the Center. With the decades-old organization back in business and founder Judy Drucker again retained as artistic director, the Concert Association wants to schedule performances from such notables as Pinchas Zukerman and Wynton Marsalis, Orlich said.

FIRM DATES

But to book such headliners, the Concert Association needs to have firm dates available to offer. To that end, Orlich sent a letter to M. John Richard, chief executive of the Adrienne Arsht Center, three weeks ago, requesting, as a resident company, various performance dates during the 2010-2011 season, which runs from November to early May.

``Judy Drucker just wants to resume presenting classical music,'' said Mark Bryn, an attorney representing Drucker.

Richard responded in writing that the Concert Association is no longer entitled to its status as a resident company.

Arsht Center leaders suspended the Concert Association's residency status after the group filed for bankruptcy and canceled more than half of its contracted dates at the center during the 2008-2009 season.

The association disputes that the suspension is permanent.

``Our position is that the suspension period ended last season -- it was only for the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons. We are now going into 2010/2011 and they didn't suspend us for this season, so we would like to have the dates,'' said Larry Kellogg, attorney with Levine Kellogg in Miami, who filed the suit on behalf of the Concert Association.

Meanwhile, Arsht Center administrators have since launched their own series of classical music and other performances, dubbed Masterworks Season, in large part to make up for the void left by the Concert Association's absence.

The suit alleges that the Arsht Center violates its obligation to the Concert Association as a resident company by putting on its own, competing concerts.

CONFLICT

Complicating the matter is a potential conflict of interest: The Concert Association can only regain resident status with approval of the Performing Arts Center Trust.

``Dan Orlich is well aware that he does not have resident company status with the Adrienne Arsht Center,'' Richard said in a statement.

``Our inaugural Masterworks Season was an extraordinary success by any measure and we have responded to the community's request to continue classical programming well into the future.''