About+Mrs.+Patterson

=~ A little about Dana B. Patterson ~ = = = ====I've worked in the music performance, directing, and education fields for 20+ years. You could have found me as a Conductor, Accompanist for all sorts of musicians, choirs, musicals, and operas. Singer, Chorister, Director, Educator, Adjudicator, Coach, and Pianist, too. Past teaching posts include music theory, high school and middle school choral, and individual piano. I've coached a number of students who are currently working actors/actresses and professional musicians who have graduated from top notch music schools including Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Julliard, and Indiana University. ====

====Although I've not ever felt so welcomed in any state as I have in Texas, I hail from what I can't help but call my FAVORITE state: Indiana - the land of the Hoosiers. I graduated high school from the tiny, tiny town of Shoals where my childhood was spent on a working 900-acre farm of livestock and grain with Mom, Dad, and three younger brothers. (We had the best playground any kid could ever have - the farm, but boy, did we ever pull a lot of weeds from all the huge gardens.) ====

====I'm a graduate from Indiana University, whose first dormitory housed more people than in my home town. (Did I mention my town is tiny?) I soon learned that IU was and still is one of the top ranked Music Schools in the world, which explains why I was inspired to study and practice. The performance majors practiced up to 14 hours a day! That's crazy! I only practiced the piano up to six hours a day. If I was too tired, I put in three hours of practice. However, I admit that I often was found face down on the piano keys sleeping away before my fingers touched the keys. I never fell off the piano bench, though. Whew! ==== = = =**Here are some pictures where I've been over the years:** = = = = =
 * [[image:http://www.awkwardsilencecomedy.com/images/eventlist/venues/indiana-memorial-union_1252308296.jpg align="center" caption="Spring Time at IU"]]

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====Since then I have worked on post-graduate degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Westminster is an extra unique school whose focus is choral singing even though you can earn degrees in voice, piano, organ, and all other orchestral instruments, education and conducting and all sorts of other stuff. They take special care to work as a top-notch team, though, because they're the resident choir of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. That's pretty cool. Can't get much better than that as far as orchestras go. When I wasn't singing, I was studying conducting, voice, and education. It's all my priceless education forever, and lucky you, students, I have the privilege to share it with you. I'm honored. ====

====There are tons more stories I could share, but it's time to have fun learning something new and practicing something known and connecting it all with something else, which includes your life. ==== = = musiconnections ~ A wonderful harmony arises from joining together the seemingly unconnected. - Heraclitus c.500BC