From Political Science to Symphony Conducting

Jonathan Pasternack ’90 was a high school sophomore when he first experienced the power of a symphony orchestra. As a promising young trombone player, he was invited to participate in a summer music program for New York youth. He had always loved music; his artist-educator parents made sure of that. But this was his first time playing with “a large group of like-minded, motivated, talented young people, led by a charismatic and very gifted conductor,” he says. He was in awe of what they could accomplish together. 

For the past decade, Pasternack has been creating that magic, not as a trombonist but as the artistic director and conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra in rural Washington state. Pasternack’s journey to Port Angeles, however, was far from direct.

That formative summer experience made such a deep impression that he opted to graduate early from high school and go straight to the Manhattan School of Music. But the unexpected death of his father led him to change course again. “It just really threw me off the track that I thought I had chosen for my life,” he remembers. Suddenly, the idea of focusing on music felt confining and limiting, so he transferred to MIT.

Equally daunted and excited by what he calls “the sheer richness of the offerings,” he migrated from physics and astronomy to philosophy and was eventually inspired by Professor Louis Menand III to major in political science with a focus on international human rights. He also reconnected with his love of music, playing trombone under beloved Concert Band director John Corley—who had other ideas about Pasternack’s path. “The summer after my first year, he handed me a baton and gave me a conducting assignment,” Pasternak remembers. 

When Pasternack struggled to find conducting work after MIT, the music director of the University of Washington Symphony invited him to join his graduate class, becoming another key mentor. “It’s something of a through line,” Pasternack says. “I lost the very powerful and inspiring role model of my own father, but I found this series of father-figure mentors instead.”

Today, Pasternack doesn’t merely conduct: He chooses programs, selects musicians and guest soloists, and manages business operations. His position with the symphony allows him, as he puts it, a “view of the organization as a complete organism,” which helps him build an orchestra based not on the conductor’s ego but on mutual respect. And after all these years, his favorite place is still “in the middle of the sound, helping things to go along.” 

Are you celebrating a milestone reunion like Jonathan Pasternack '90 is? Learn more about MIT Tech Reunions taking place May 30 to June 1 on MIT's campus. 

This story also appears in the March/April issue of MIT Alumni News magazine, published by MIT Technology Review.  

Photo: Diane Urbani de la Paz