From the first time pianist and conductor Ramona Pansegrau accompanied a dance class, she was hooked.
Although the Kansas City Ballet’s music director started playing piano at age 4, it was during her doctorate program in piano performance at the University of Iowa that she first played for a ballet class. Joffrey Ballet—a premiere, Chicago-based dance company—came to the university. When the company’s pianist injured their hand, Pansegrau volunteered to step in.
“I always sort of imagined music with movement when I played, but with the dancers, I got to see it come to life,” Pansegrau says. “I still love that, every second of the day.”
Pansegrau went on to be the principal pianist of Boston Ballet, followed by a position as music director of Tulsa Ballet.
Now, Pansegrau is embarking on her 18th season as the Kansas City Ballet’s music director. She’s seen the ballet grow a lot throughout her tenure, coming on board shortly before the construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, where main company performances are held. She also saw the organization expand from a small three-studio facility to the seven-studio Bolender Center, just next door to Union Station.
In her day to day, the maestra does it all. Just a few of her roles include conducting the orchestra, reorchestrating scores and leading a team of more than 20 accompanists. While Pansegrau says it’s rare for music directors to both conduct and still play for classes, she loves being in the classroom—it’s what led her to ballet years ago.
“There’s a lot of variety in what I do and I really, really enjoy that,” Pansegrau says. “A day is never the same from one to the next.”
Next month, the season will open with ALICE (in wonderland), bringing a classic story to life through a melding of ballet and contemporary dance. For the rest of the season, Pansegrau is especially looking forward to this spring’s production of Don Quixote, a project that has long been in the making. Although Pansegrau wrote the orchestration herself, this is the first time Kansas City stages will see the work.
“I love the melding of dance and music because it seems that two wonderful entities together become something greater than the whole,” Pansegrau says.
