The Pacific Northwest Ballet Future Fund ensures that the artists at PNB are able to dance, create, and bring you joy during these times of uncertainty and change. We ask that you consider a gift to the fund, which will help keep our dancers, musicians, staff, and production teams employed […]
Mona Butler has been a bassoonist in Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra since the orchestra was founded in 1989, and PNB’s Music Librarian since the position was created in 1996. Marketing Assistant Maris Antolin sat down with Mona in late February […]
Lindsi Dec and PNB Company dancers in Carmina Burana © Angela Sterling.
You never forget the opening moment of Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana. Even wildly enthusiastic applause can’t drown out the 70 voices of the Pacific Lutheran University Choral […]
PNB Company dancers in Carmina Burana © Angela Sterling.
“O Fortuna” is one of the most dramatic, and memorable, pieces of music in the modern classical canon. Based on a 13th century Medieval Latin Goliardic poem, and set to music in 1935 by composer Carl […]
By Emil de Cou, Music Director/Principal Conductor, PNB Orchestra
On February 28, 1990 Twyla Tharp’s Scottish-themed ballet Brief Fling made its debut on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. I was in the orchestra […]
My parents settled in the Central Wisconsin city of Stevens Point, a “college town” with an active and energetic community. I was born and mostly raised in “Point,” as were my younger siblings.
My parents were […]
My family was a hodgepodge of national backgrounds, but my generation (late baby boomer) and our previous two generations were all American-born. My parents grew up in the Depression and were young adults during WWII, so my “American Story” was shaped […]
My mother and father (both Northwestern University graduates) taught vocal music for many years in the Tacoma School District. My mother’s father was an Army Finance Officer; her mother, a professional musician, once saw Mitch Miller play English horn on television and decided that […]
For my parents, America meant opportunity. Individually, they came to the US from Korea in the 1950’s, meeting for the first time in Chicago, and bringing with them their own stories of perseverance and […]
Pacific Northwest Ballet's Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell was instrumental in creating the PNB Orchestra; he recently sat down to share memories of the PNB Orchestra and his Carmina Burana.