WEEKEND: Roll into Beethoven with Port Angeles Symphony guest conductor Saturday

PORT ANGELES — Talk with Jonathan Pasternack about the music he enjoys, and names bubble up fast: Beethoven, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin.

Then there’s the London Symphony Orchestra, a group he led a few years ago. Together, they recorded a CD of Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 at England’s Abbey Road Studios.

“I walked across the famous street, in the footsteps,” Pasternack said, referring to Abbey Road and its former denizens, the Beatles.

And this conductor, who will lead the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra in two all-Beethoven concerts Saturday, has strolled the streets of 11 other European countries, from Switzerland and France to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Russia and Romania.

When asked if he speaks any foreign languages, Pasternack responded: “I try.”

He learned Spanish in public school, he adds, but he forgot a lot of it.

Pasternack’s education is nonetheless impressive. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., won a trombone scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music at 16, and later transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study astronomy, philosophy and political science.

He made his conducting debut at 18 and went on to found the MIT Chamber Orchestra. Later, he moved to Seattle to earn graduate degrees in music at the University of Washington. Pasternack’s awards include second prize at the Sixth Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in Barcelona, Spain, in 2002, where he was the only American invited to compete.

The man is a blend of high energy and humility. Both were in evidence this past Monday when Pasternack came to Port Angeles to meet the musicians he’ll conduct in three Beethoven classics: the Sixth Symphony known as the Pastoral; the Egmont Overture and the Violin Concerto in D Major. These works, Pasternack said, are highly challenging. The passion in them builds and builds some more, in a way only Beethoven could compose.

Pasternack is applying for the job of permanent director of the Port Angeles Symphony, in the wake of Seattle-based conductor Adam Stern’s departure last spring.

The symphony board of directors didn’t renew Stern’s contract, expressing a desire for a community-centered orchestra.

Which is Pasternack’s desire too.

“I love the music so much. I love orchestra music,” he began. “But for me, it’s something more than that.

“It’s the act of helping people come together in a very positive pursuit . . . in some of the most beautiful art that exists. To me, that is a perfect place to live,” artistically and physically.

“I want to be with like-minded people who love to play music. Add a beautiful setting, one that is as inspiring as the music is, and add a loyal community following: That’s all I need.”

Pasternack lived in the Pacific Northwest on and off for 12 years. He’s now visiting Director of Orchestral Activities at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, an academic-year job he’ll hold until next May.

If chosen as the Port Angeles Symphony’s maestro, he’d move here “in a heartbeat.”

Pasternack arrived early for Monday night’s symphony rehearsal to introduce himself to the musicians, who range from teenagers such as Kate Powers of Sequim to veterans like Kristin Smith of Port Townsend. The orchestra had had five rehearsals of the all-Beethoven program before Pasternack could make it to Port Angeles; they will have three rehearsals together before Saturday night’s concert.

A distance can open up between conductor and players, Pasternack said, so a personal connection is crucial.

“It’s like a big family, especially [when it’s] a community orchestra,” he said, except “everybody is here voluntarily. That’s immediately apparent in the energy, in the spirit, and in the passion, too.

“It’s a unique group of people, by definition. To me, that’s a beautiful thing.”

During Monday’s run-through, Pasternack threw his body into the work.

“This is an approaching storm,” he said of the music. Then he guided them toward the crescendo, the moment when “the sky opens up.”

“Just beautiful. Bravi, everybody,” the conductor said as they moved from their overture to the Pastoral.

Josu de Solaun, a Spanish pianist who has played Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto under Pasternack’s baton — and who knows him well — wrote to the Peninsula Daily News of his conducting style.

He has “spectacular virtuosity,” de Solaun began.

“He brings also something indeed quire rare: intensity of emotion, integrity and depth. He possesses the rare gift of being able to unfurl the sense of the music . . . he is a life force, a profound talent.”

During Pasternack’s time in Port Angeles, the orchestra musicians and the audience members will have a chance to evaluate him. The players had forms on their music stands at rehearsal Monday, and audience feedback forms will be available at both Saturday performances.

The same goes for each Port Angeles Symphony concert between now and May, as a series of conductor candidates lead the chamber and symphony orchestras through the coming season. The symphony board hopes to select the permanent director by next summer.

For Saturday’s concerts — the public dress rehearsal at 10 a.m. and the evening performance at 7:30 — guest artist Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi of Seattle will join the orchestra. She and Pasternack met in Seattle to discuss the Beethoven concerto she will play, but their first rehearsal together wouldn’t be until Thursday.

As for what he might say to invite a classical music neophyte to Saturday’s events, Pasternack again shows his fierce love of the orchestra.

All this Beethoven “is guaranteed to hold your interest from beginning to end,” he said. It is also sure to move and delight the listener.

“The experience of seeing all of these people performing live cannot be re-created any other way.

“And I will stand behind that.”