Music Staff

Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra
Please see our Orchestra page.

PNB Music Staff

Stewart Kershaw
Music Director and Conductor
Stewart Kershaw has been Music Director and Conductor for Pacific Northwest Ballet since 1983. Born in Oxford, England, Mr. Kershaw was a chorister at Chichester Cathedral, studied at London's Royal Academy of Music (of which he was made a Fellow in 1989), and at the Conservatoire Nationale de Paris.

He has worked with numerous ballet companies, including the Stuttgart Ballet, for which he was the Music Director from 1973 to 1980, the Royal Ballet in London and American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Kershaw worked with the Paris Opera from 1977 to 1980, and from 1978 to 1980 he was chief conductor of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra in Japan. From 1980 to 1989, he held the post of Music Director of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1997, Mr. Kershaw was invited to create the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, which now gives concerts at Auburn's Performing Arts Center in South King County. In a long and extensive career, Mr. Kershaw has conducted more than 70 orchestras in 15 different countries around the world.

Allan Dameron
Associate Conductor and Company Pianist
Allan Dameron has been Company Pianist at Pacific Northwest Ballet since 1990 and Associate Conductor since 1992. Originally from North Carolina, Mr. Dameron is a graduate of 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 taught chamber music 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.

Dianne Chilgren
Company Pianist
Dianne Chilgren has had a distinguished career as a soloist and chamber player, appearing with major orchestras in London, Madrid, Geneva, Zurich, Monte Carlo, San Francisco and New York City. Her New York solo recitals in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Town Hall and Carnegie Hall have all received high critical acclaim. She has recorded under the label of Mark Records as well as for radio and television in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

Formerly, she was a piano soloist with the New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine. She has advanced degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy as well as her Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and Indiana University. She was recently invited to record the piano soundtrack for several pre-existing silent dance films from the 1960s and 1970s of George Balanchine's choreography at the SONY Music Studios in New York City, under the auspices of the Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts and the Balanchine Foundation. She also has recorded for Deutsche Rundfunk and classical piano solos for Mark Records.