Background
Diplomate of the Music Theatre Studio Ensemble, Banff School of the Arts
Patrice Michaels is distinguished by vocal virtuosity and an eclectic musical personality. Her live and recorded performances rank her as “A formidable interpretative talent” (The New Yorker), possessing “a voice that is light, rich and flexible” (Opera News). She receives consistent critical acclaim for her many recordings (Albany, Amadis, Cedille, Neos and Decca labels).
Patrice’s appearances include Shanghai, Czech National, St. Louis, Atlanta and Minnesota Orchestras, New York’s Concert Royal and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. She debuted with the Cleveland Opera in Fidelio, sang in Candide at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and performed in Menotti’s The Medium (Chicago Opera Theater on Cedille Records). Recitals include the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana, Music at the Supreme Court, Harvard University and The Schubert Club.
Patrice’s compositional interests center around works with words, including incidental music for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a one-act opera on Euripides’ The Trojan Women, the children’s show A Song for Harmonica, and several song cycles, including THE LONG VIEW: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs and RESOLVED: Songs of Women's Suffrage and the 19th Amendment. Her choral work, Refuge was premiered at the Kennedy Center and is published by GIA in Doreen Rao’s “Global Encounters” collection. Young Artists of the Glimmerglass Festival premiered Lunch Encounter 1929 with music and words by Patrice, based on the life of lawyer/activist/poet Pauli Murray.
Patrice served as Lead Compiler and Music Editor for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s newest edition of their expanded, twenty-volume anthology Resonance: A Comprehensive Voice Series, released in 2025. She also edited Levels 9 and 10 of their 2019 eight-volume anthology.
Patrice is a graduate of Pomona College, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and a diplomate of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. She holds memberships in The Recording Academy, ASCAP, AGMA, NATS and Musicians Club of Women. She previously served as Professor of Voice and Opera for 17 years at Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Director of Vocal Studies at The University of Chicago for 10 years. In 2019, she joined the Voice & Opera faculty of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where she currently serves as Professor of Instruction.
For more information, visit www.patricemichaels.com