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David Patterson (guitarist)
Encyclopedia
David Patterson is an American guitarist. He was the founding member of the New World Guitar Trio
and is recognized as a solo performer and arranger.
. His father, John Patterson, was an amateur pianist and organist. His mother emigrated from Cuba in the late 1950s and became a school teacher in Rumson, New Jersey
where she met John Patterson. David Patterson attended several schools in his youth including boarding school, which he later left to more seriously pursue musical studies.
As a youth, Patterson studied piano and violin as well as the guitar. Among his many teachers were jazz guitarist Harry Leahey
, theorist and arranger Dr. Henry Melnik, and classical guitarist Francis Perry. He went on to study at New England Conservatory of Music
, where he received both his Bachelor's and Master's degree with distinction in classical guitar performance. His teachers were David Leisner
and Neil Anderson.
Patterson's influences include: Jimmy Page
, John McLaughlin
, Julian Bream
, John Williams, Miles Davis
, Jeff Beck
, Paco de Lucia
, Beethoven, Bach
, and Heitor Villa-Lobos
.
, a group dedicated to commissioning and performing new music as well as creating original arrangements of the standard repertoire. As the group’s producer and arranger, Patterson was praised for his innovative programming and his “ingenious transcriptions of solo piano, chamber, and orchestral works" (Guitar Player magazine). His approach merged the traditional genres of Beethoven and the folk music of Portugal, with the sounds of late 20th-century repertoire. Patterson has collaborated with such composers as Osvaldo Golijov
, Claudio Ragazzi, Chiel Meijering
, David Leisner
, and Dana Brayton on works commissioned by the Trio. The ensemble was praised for its recordings: “Indeed, what’s remarkable…is how fluidly and fluently the New World Guitar Trio makes this program seem idiomatic to three guitars, while providing a refreshing new perspective on the music itself” (Audio Magazine).
Between 1988 and 1997, the members of the Trio included David Patterson, Dean Harada, and Thomas Noren. Harada left the group and was replaced by Thomas Rhode in the summer of 1997.
After 15 years of success, the Trio members disbanded in 2003 to pursue individual projects.
, Opera Boston
, and the Fromm Players for the Harvard Group for New Music as an artist-in-residence. He has been a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Festival
and Bowdoin
International Music Festival. In 2003, Patterson collaborated with composer Osvaldo Golijov
and soprano Dawn Upshaw
as an arranger and performer in the world premiere of the opera Ainadamar
under the baton of Robert Spano
at Tanglewood. He was a performer in the Boston premiere of Ainadamar in 2007, with Opera Boston under the baton of Gil Rose and renowned director Peter Sellars
. In 2008, Patterson was a guest artist at the Longy School of Music
’s tribute to the 100th birthday of legendary American composer, Elliott Carter
. He performed Changes, Carter’s most important work for the classical guitar.
, Villa-Lobos, Leo Brouwer
, Johann Kaspar Mertz
, and Ginastera. Patterson’s work for guitar includes his 2003 recording of Jimmy Page
’s “White Summer/Black Mountainside”, featured in a compilation CD Guitar Harvest alongside guitarists Andy Summers
, Bill Frisell
, and Ralph Towner
, among others.
Esordio (T4D 005-01, 2005)
Guitar Harvest (Solid Air Records, SACD 2042, 2003)
Exiled (200NW2-2)
New World Guitar Trio (993TMR-6, 1995)
Patterson is on the faculty of Longy School of Music
(Cambridge, MA), Tufts University
(Medford, MA), and Gordon College
(Wenham, MA).
New World Guitar Trio
New Word Guitar Trio was an eclectic, contemporary ensemble founded by David Patterson in 1988. After its inception, the Trio quickly gained notoriety for its highly-charged and refined performances which often defied the standard conceptions of the classical guitar repertoire...
and is recognized as a solo performer and arranger.
Biography
Patterson was born in Red Bank, New JerseyRed Bank, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 11,844 people, 5,201 households, and 2,501 families residing in the borough. The population density was 6,639.1 people per square mile . There were 5,450 housing units at an average density of 3,055.0 per square mile...
. His father, John Patterson, was an amateur pianist and organist. His mother emigrated from Cuba in the late 1950s and became a school teacher in Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,122.Rumson was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 15, 1907, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a...
where she met John Patterson. David Patterson attended several schools in his youth including boarding school, which he later left to more seriously pursue musical studies.
As a youth, Patterson studied piano and violin as well as the guitar. Among his many teachers were jazz guitarist Harry Leahey
Harry Leahey
Harry Leahey was a jazz guitarist and guitar teacher who lived, taught and performed primarily in New Jersey.-Guitar studies:Leahey received his first guitar at the age of thirteen...
, theorist and arranger Dr. Henry Melnik, and classical guitarist Francis Perry. He went on to study at New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
, where he received both his Bachelor's and Master's degree with distinction in classical guitar performance. His teachers were David Leisner
David Leisner
David Leisner is a classical guitarist, composer, teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and one of the leading authorities on focal dystonia, due to being impaired by the injury for 12 years and recovering through methods that he developed and now teaches his students.-Biography:David Leisner...
and Neil Anderson.
Patterson's influences include: Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
, Julian Bream
Julian Bream
Julian Bream, CBE is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute....
, John Williams, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Paco de Lucia
Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
, Beethoven, Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
, and Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
.
The New World Guitar Trio
In 1988, Patterson founded the New World Guitar TrioNew World Guitar Trio
New Word Guitar Trio was an eclectic, contemporary ensemble founded by David Patterson in 1988. After its inception, the Trio quickly gained notoriety for its highly-charged and refined performances which often defied the standard conceptions of the classical guitar repertoire...
, a group dedicated to commissioning and performing new music as well as creating original arrangements of the standard repertoire. As the group’s producer and arranger, Patterson was praised for his innovative programming and his “ingenious transcriptions of solo piano, chamber, and orchestral works" (Guitar Player magazine). His approach merged the traditional genres of Beethoven and the folk music of Portugal, with the sounds of late 20th-century repertoire. Patterson has collaborated with such composers as Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
, Claudio Ragazzi, Chiel Meijering
Chiel Meijering
Chiel Meijering is a Dutch composer. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion with Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens, and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music....
, David Leisner
David Leisner
David Leisner is a classical guitarist, composer, teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and one of the leading authorities on focal dystonia, due to being impaired by the injury for 12 years and recovering through methods that he developed and now teaches his students.-Biography:David Leisner...
, and Dana Brayton on works commissioned by the Trio. The ensemble was praised for its recordings: “Indeed, what’s remarkable…is how fluidly and fluently the New World Guitar Trio makes this program seem idiomatic to three guitars, while providing a refreshing new perspective on the music itself” (Audio Magazine).
Between 1988 and 1997, the members of the Trio included David Patterson, Dean Harada, and Thomas Noren. Harada left the group and was replaced by Thomas Rhode in the summer of 1997.
After 15 years of success, the Trio members disbanded in 2003 to pursue individual projects.
Solo career
In addition to his work with the New World Guitar Trio, Patterson has maintained an active solo career, performing with such ensembles as the Auros Group for New Music, Boston Musica Viva, the Boston University Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra ProjectBoston Modern Orchestra Project
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...
, Opera Boston
Opera Boston
Opera Boston is an opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in innovative repertoire and rarely heard works, along with opera education and outreach programs designed to bring opera education to children, in schools and after-school programs throughout the Boston area.Its home base is...
, and the Fromm Players for the Harvard Group for New Music as an artist-in-residence. He has been a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
and Bowdoin
Bowdoin
-Places:In the United States:* Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine* Bowdoin, Maine, a town* Bowdoin Street , in Massachusetts** Bowdoin * Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, Montana...
International Music Festival. In 2003, Patterson collaborated with composer Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
and soprano Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
as an arranger and performer in the world premiere of the opera Ainadamar
Ainadamar
Ainadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30,...
under the baton of Robert Spano
Robert Spano
Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra , and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004...
at Tanglewood. He was a performer in the Boston premiere of Ainadamar in 2007, with Opera Boston under the baton of Gil Rose and renowned director Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
. In 2008, Patterson was a guest artist at the Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
’s tribute to the 100th birthday of legendary American composer, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
. He performed Changes, Carter’s most important work for the classical guitar.
Discography
David Patterson can be heard on two New World Guitar Trio recordings: the eponymous New World Guitar Trio (1994) and Exiled (2000). In 2005, his debut solo recording, Esordio was released featuring the music of BachBạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
, Villa-Lobos, Leo Brouwer
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida is a Cuban composer, conductor and guitarist. He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona Casado.-Biography:...
, Johann Kaspar Mertz
Johann Kaspar Mertz
Johann Kaspar Mertz was a Hungarian guitarist and composer.NOTE: THE ORIGINAL CREATOR OF THIS PAGE PLAGIARIZED THEIR MATERIAL. It has been copied and pasted from the Mel Bay website: http://www.melbay.com/authors.asp?author=749 I tried to report this problem to wikipedia, but they do not make it...
, and Ginastera. Patterson’s work for guitar includes his 2003 recording of Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
’s “White Summer/Black Mountainside”, featured in a compilation CD Guitar Harvest alongside guitarists Andy Summers
Andy Summers
Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
, and Ralph Towner
Ralph Towner
Ralph Towner is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet.-Biography:...
, among others.
Esordio (T4D 005-01, 2005)
Guitar Harvest (Solid Air Records, SACD 2042, 2003)
Exiled (200NW2-2)
New World Guitar Trio (993TMR-6, 1995)
Teaching
Patterson is on the faculty of Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
(Cambridge, MA), Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
(Medford, MA), and Gordon College
Gordon College
Gordon College may refer to:* Gordon College , a public college in Barnesville, Georgia* Gordon College , a Christian college in Wenham, Massachusetts* Gordon College , a Christian college in Rawalpindi, Pakistan...
(Wenham, MA).