Jonathan Pasternack | The Chuck and Darlene Whitney Artistic Director
Jonathan Pasternack is the Chuck and Darlene Whitney Artistic Director and Conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2015. Pasternack has conducted symphony orchestras, opera, and ballet in the United States and a dozen European countries, with such ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest of The Hague, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, among many others. His debut recording leading the London Symphony Orchestra in music by Bartók and Brahms was released on the NAXOS label to critical acclaim. Recent recording projects with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic) will culminate in releases on the Spanish-based label, ARIA Classics.
Among his previous engagements include positions with the Oregon Symphony, Bellevue Opera, Icicle Creek Music Center, and Seattle Youth Symphonies, and visiting professorships at Ithaca College, Pacific Lutheran University, Sam Houston State University, and the University of Washington School of Music.
Pasternack has enjoyed collaborations with orchestras and opera companies in the Pacific Northwest, including the Oregon Ballet Theater, Olympia Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, Lake Union Chamber Orchestra, Puget Sound Concert Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, Shoreline College Opera, Affinity Contemporary Players, Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers.
Born and raised in New York City, Jonathan Pasternack began his training on violin, cello, and piano, won a trombone scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music at the age of sixteen, and made his conducting debut at the age of eighteen while an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won Second Prize at the Sixth Cadaqués International Conducting Competition, in Barcelona, where he was the only American invited to compete, and was awarded distinctions at the Aspen, Brevard, and David Oistrakh Music Festivals. His principal teachers and mentors were Peter Erős, James De Preist, Hans Vonk, Jorma Panula, and Neeme Järvi.
