ARTISTIC STAFF BIOS

Christopher Stowell was born in New York City and received his training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the School of American Ballet. In 1985 he joined San Francisco Ballet where he danced for sixteen years, appearing in theaters throughout the world including the Paris Opera, New York’s Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. As a principal dancer, Stowell performed leading roles in the full-length classics Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Othello, and had roles created for him by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and by contemporary choreographers including Mark Morris, William Forsythe and James Kudelka. An established interpreter of the George Balanchine repertoire, Stowell appeared in almost every Balanchine ballet performed by SFB. Upon his retirement in 2001, he was accorded a gala farewell in the War Memorial Opera House.

Stowell has taught and coached in San Francisco, New York, Japan and Europe. He has created new works for San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Diablo Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute. He has also staged the works of George Balanchine and Mark Morris.

In 2003, Christopher Stowell became Oregon Ballet Theatre’s second artistic director. Since his debut season, he has made significant additions to the OBT repertoire, bringing to Portland works from some of the world’s most celebrated choreographers, including Ashton, Balanchine, Robbins, Taylor, Tomasson, Wheeldon and Lubovitch. In addition to creating eight world premieres for OBT, including the company’s first full-length Swan Lake in 2006 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2007, Stowell has also commissioned works by internationally prominent artists James Kudelka, Kent Stowell, Trey McIntyre, Yuri Possokhov, Julia Adam and Nicolo Fonte.

Niel DePonte has been the Music Director for Oregon Ballet Theatre and its predecessor, Pacific Ballet Theatre, since 1985. He has appeared as a guest conductor for Boston Ballet, the Ballet of the Mussorgsky (Maly) Theatre in St. Petersberg, Russia, and at the Nureyev Ballet Festival. He has also conducted symphonic, pops and youth concerts with the symphonies of Oregon, Syracuse and Charlotte, among others.

Mr. DePonte appears frequently before audiences across America pursuing his many musical interests. He is artistic director and conductor of the Young Artists Debut! concerto concert and served as Bel Canto Northwest's opera conductor for three seasons. He was a 2003 Grammy Award nominee for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra for his performance of Tomas Svoboda's Concerto for Marimba with the Oregon Symphony, and frequently appears with Chamber Music Northwest. As founder of MetroArts, Inc., he has done considerable research on the use of the arts for teaching cognitive strategies in the classroom, and in 2006 was named a Local Hero by Bank of America for his work with the MetroArts Kids Camp summer arts program.

Mr. DePonte's arrangement of A Midsummer Night's Dream is his latest in a series of compositions and arrangements written for the ballet stage. These include Christopher Stowell's Adin in 2004, Houston Ballet's 2002 production of Peter Pan and OBT's 1993 version of The Nutcracker. He holds a Master's degree and the Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and a degree in Education from the State University of New York.

MICHAEL MAZZOLA / LIGHTING DIRECTOR

Michael Mazzola's critically acclaimed lighting has been seen in venues all over the U.S. and Europe, ranging from opera houses to circus tents to outdoor amphitheaters. The three-time New York Dance and Performance Award-winner has designed lighting most recently for he Bebe Miller Company, Stuttgart Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.

Lisa Kipp began studying ballet in Olympia, Washington, and finished her training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pacific Ballet Theatre, Ballet Oregon, Ballet of Los Angeles, Ballet Chicago and James Sewell Dance, and also performed in the touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Ms. Kipp danced principal roles in George Balanchine's Rubies, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Square Dance, Concerto Barocco and Apollo, and appeared as the Cowgirl in Agnes De Mille's Rodeo. Prior to joining OBT, she was the Ballet Department Head for the school of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, as well as the company’s Rehearsal Director.