Patrick Greene (composer)

Patrick Greene
Occupation(s) Composer
Singer
Conductor

Patrick Greene (born 1985) is an American composer and performer of contemporary classical music. A lifelong resident of New England, he has been based in Boston, Massachusetts, since 2008.

Early life

Greene was born in Madison, Connecticut, to Donald, a dermatologist, and JoAnne, a nurse. His earliest musical experiences were Suzuki method string (and later piano) lessons as a young child. At the age of 6, he joined his local church choir: as of December 2010, he has remained continuously involved with choral singing. Five years with the Trinity Boys' Choir (1993–1998) left a lasting impression on him, both musically and professionally.[1] Early exposure to instruments (piano, saxophone, guitar, percussion, and sitar) proved immensely useful to his later compositional career, as well: indeed, many of his first pieces were etudes written in the service of learning new musical instruments.

In high school, Greene discovered a talent and affinity for musical theater. His first major role was in the Daniel Hand High School's 2000 production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Greene is still active in the musical theater communities of Rhode Island and Connecticut: as of 2010, he has held lead roles in more than thirty productions. An avid Sondheim enthusiast, Greene cites his early experience with musicals as another influence on his later career.[2]

Education

Greene earned his MM in Composition from the Boston Conservatory in May 2010, where his primary teachers were Andy Vores and Dalit Warshaw. While at the Conservatory, he also studied with Jan Swafford and Curtis Hughes. His undergraduate career was at Trinity College, where he earned his B.A. in Music in 2007. His primary teachers at Trinity were Gerald Moshell and Douglas Bruce Johnson.[3]

A lifelong autodidact, virtually all of Greene's early education in composing came from score analysis, musicological texts, and listening. It wasn't until graduate school that he had long-term, formal instruction.

Musical style

The composer describes his music as overarchingly lyrical and poly-stylistic. He takes a craftsman's approach to composition, writing music suited to the unique constraints of an event or specific performers. As a result, his music can be unabashedly tonal (The Shepherd, 2009), pretonal (Missa Brevis, 2010), post-tonal (The Pieces That Fall to Earth, 2010), or atonal (The City in the Sea, 2009).[4] Greene has described his music as "extractive," rather than "abstractive."[5]

Major pieces

Greene won the Rapido! New England Composition Contest in October 2010 with his recent chamber piece abstractEXTRACTION, premiered by the Boston Musica Viva at Boston University's Tsai Performing Arts Center.[6][7] At the 2011 Rapido! Take Two!! National Finals in Atlanta, Georgia, the same piece garnered the Internet Audience Favorite Award. In 2007, he was commissioned by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra for two new works: a large choral/orchestral piece based on the spiritual God's Gonna Set This World on Fire, and a wind quintet based on the Kenyan folk song "Kwaharree." After fulfilling a number of commissions for various ensembles at Trinity College, he received a large-scale choral/orchestral commission for performance in 2011. He also recently composed the official anthem of the college's Cornerstone Campaign, a $32.9 million-dollar restoration project.

His orchestral thesis at the Conservatory, Night of the Four Zoas, was premiered by Yoichi Udagawa in Boston in the spring of 2010. Based on the mythopoetic writings of William Blake, Night of the Four Zoas marks the composer's third Blake-derived piece. His recent trumpet/cello/piano trio, Maxwell's Demon, was premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the fall of 2010.[8] Other recent pieces include his Variations for String Quartet (2009–10), No Oblivion (solo clarinet, 2010), The Pieces That Fall to Earth (solo singers with chamber orchestra on the poetry of A.R. Ammons, Stephen Crane, and T.S. Eliot, 2010), Inclinado en las tardes (SATB, on the poetry of Pablo Neruda, 2010), and The City in the Sea: Landscape for 15 Strings (string orchestra, 2008).[9]

Conducting a rehearsal of his music in Boston, April 2010

Current projects

Greene is an active participant in the Boston new music scene, both as a composer and a singer. A founding member of The Fifth Floor Collective and the Equilibrium Concert Series, Greene is also involved with the Society for Music Theory, the American Composer's Forum, CompositionToday.com, and the publication of new music through his company, Ars Longa Music.

Upcoming projects include works for circuit-bent electronics titled "Fuzzy Logic", two Boston-based duos (Transient Canvas and Balletik Duo), and a large-scale piece for the renowned organist Christopher Houlihan.

In the fall of 2010, Patrick became the first-ever Musical Director of the Harvard Kennedy School's a cappella program. The fall of 2012, he became the Music Director of the a cappella program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Greene performs around New England with the Cantata 4 ensemble, a quartet dedicated to period-accurate performance of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. He is a founding member of The Elmsmen, a male trio specializing in both Renaissance and modern music, and performs as a cantata soloist with numerous choirs in the greater Boston area.

List of works

Full orchestra

Chamber orchestra

Small ensembles

Choral

Songs

Solo instruments

Electronics

Notes

  1. ↑ Official website, accessed 12/07/10
  2. ↑ http://media.www.trinitytripod.com/media/storage/paper520/news/2006/12/05/Arts/Artist.Spotlight.Pat.Greene-2522847.shtml Artist Spotlight, 12/05/2006
  3. ↑ http://www.trincoll.edu Trinity College
  4. ↑ http://www.patrickgreenemusic.com Official website
  5. ↑ http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=15&id=1750145&pid=51 WABE Atlanta Public Radio feature
  6. ↑ http://classical-scene.com/2010/10/03/ruminative/ Boston Musical Intelligencer Review, 10/03/2010
  7. ↑ http://www.artscriticatl.com/2010/08/atlanta-chamber-players-set-to-revive-rapido-composition-contest-an-energized-way-to-get-new-music/ Arts Critic Atlanta article, accessed 12/07/2010
  8. ↑ http://www.fifthfloorcollective.com The Fifth Floor Collective
  9. ↑ http://www.bmv.org/rapido.html Boston Musica Viva biographical entry
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