Pete Nowlen

Wind Symphony Director | SO Camp Director

Wind Symphony Director Pete Nowlen has been the California Youth Symphony Brass Coach since 1992 and summer camp co-director since 2007. As a member of the UC Davis faculty (where he is Director of Concert Bands) since 1988 and the CSU Sacramento faculty from 1989-2016, Pete has mentored a generation of musicians and music educators for our region and beyond. He currently holds Artistic Director posts with Camerata California Chamber Choir, Symphony d’Oro - Rancho Cordova, and the CalCap Chamber Music Workshop.

In June, Pete retired as the longest continuously-serving artistic director of the San Francisco Pride Band, the world’s first dedicated LGBTQ musical ensemble. Upon his retirement, Pete was the recipient of resolutions of commendation from the California Senate and Assembly and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor, Daniel Lurie.

Orchestral conducting credits include the Sacramento Symphony, U.C. Davis Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento State University Symphony Orchestra, Camellia Symphony, and Music in the Mountains Orchestra. Opera, ballet, and theater conducting credits include La Boheme, Hansel und Gretel, Magic Flute, Amahl, Orpheus in the Underworld, La Finta Gardiniere, Billy the Kid, L’Histoire du Soldat, Façade, Little Shop of Horrors, Falsettos, Company, and Man of La Mancha.

Horn performance credits include the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras, Symphony Silicon Valley, Sacramento Symphony, Philharmonic, and Opera, the Music in the Mountains Festival, and the International Orchestra of Italy. In 1992, Pete was the third prize winner of the International Competition for Solo Horn of the Castle of Duino, Italy, and in 1994, he was a semi-finalist in the prestigious American Horn Competition.

Pete is the founder and driving force behind Sacramento’s VITA Academy, dedicated to revitalizing classical music through innovative community and audience engagement and school music programs.