November 26 - December 27, 2010
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
321 Mercer Street at Seattle Center
Seattle, WA 98109
 
SEATTLE, WA — Pacific Northwest Ballet has announced the schedule of guest conductors for upcoming performances of the Stowell/Sendak Nutracker.  Guest conductors for the 2010 performances will be Stephen Radcliffe and Alastair Willis.  They will be sharing the baton with PNB’s acting music director/conductor, Allan Dameron.  (See complete schedule below.)  The only production of its kind in the world, PNB’s Nutcracker combines PNB Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell’s charming and dramatic choreography with magnificent sets and costumes by renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are), the live magic of the PNB Orchestra and more than 200 roles danced by PNB’s professional dancers and students.  Twenty-seven years young, Nutcracker is the Northwest’s favorite holiday tradition.
 
STEPHEN RADCLIFFE
Stephen Radcliffe is Music Director of Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. He made his Lincoln Center conducting debut with Metropolitan Opera sopranos Jan DeGaetani, Susan Graham, and Dawn Upshaw. Mr. Radcliffe has since conducted orchestras on four continents and recorded operatic, orchestral, and chamber music works. He served as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Lyric Opera, Founder and Music Director of the New York Chamber Ensemble, Artistic Director of the Cape May Music Festival, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hungarian Virtuosi. He was also the Director of Orchestral and Operatic Activities at the University of Massachusetts and Music Director of the Five College Opera Project. Mr. Radcliffe holds a degree in Music Education from the New England Conservatory and has led youth orchestra programs throughout the world. He holds a Masters Degree
in conducting from the University of Michigan and studied at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Centers and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
 
ALASTAIR WILLIS
Alastair Willis was the Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 2000 to 2003. He has appeared with dozens of the nation’s foremost symphonies and orchestras, and internationally with China National Symphony Orchestra Beijing, Orchestre de Bretagne, Graz Opera orchestra, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, among others.  In 2002, he was asked by Yo-Yo Ma to conduct performances of his Silk Road Project and was subsequently re-invited to conduct for the project all over the world. He was previously Assistant Conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 1999, Mr. Willis was one of six up-and-coming conductors chosen for American Symphony Orchestra League's National Conductor Preview in 1999 and was awarded a Tanglewood Music Festival. He received his bachelor's degree with honors from Bristol University and earned a post-graduate Certificate of Education degree at Kingston University. In 1996, he won a scholarship to study at Rice University, graduating with a Master of Music degree.
 
ALLAN DAMERON
PNB Acting Music Director/Conductor
A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Allan Dameron graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts and studied conducting at the Pierre Monteaux School in Maine.  Mr. Dameron has been Music Director and Conductor for Chicago City Ballet and Assistant Conductor at Chicago Lyric Opera. Prior to joining PNB, he was a chamber music professor at Northern Illinois University. As a chamber music pianist, Mr. Dameron has been a guest artist with the Vermeer and Audubon Quartets and is a member of the Ariel Trio. Mr. Dameron performs piano solo work for PNB ballets, including Dual Lish, Duo Concertant, Für Alina and Rubies.