Paul M Patinka
Style: Opera; Folk; Rock; Classical; Pop; Musical Theatre
Title: Instructor of Music
Bio:
Paul M. Patinka (they/them/Mx.) serves as the current governor of the New England NATS Region and lives in beautiful Providence, RI, and works as a voice pedagogue, independent researcher, and freelance musician. They are fortunate to maintain a robust academic, community, and private teaching studio representing equal proportions of Contemporary Commercial, Musical Theatre, and Western Classical styles. Their teaching experience includes private lessons, class voice, choral ensemble direction, vocal coaching, and academic coursework with diverse student experience levels and communities. Paul’s teaching is grounded in critical music education philosophy, and they strive to hear each student’s definition of success, center their goals and aspirations in lessons, and foster sustainable individualized techniques and skills across genres. This philosophy seeks a balance between doing and knowing so that students can integrate new experience into immediate practice and individually replicate these ideas through guided sensory awareness, critical listening skills, and successful practice frameworks.
Paul is an inquisitive person who perpetually asks why regarding current teaching models, institutional structures, and ways of thinking about and listening to singing. Their research centers diverse pedagogies and repertoire in the intersection of critical theory, music education, musicology, and vocology. They are deeply invested in rebuilding contemporary practice to include and celebrate diverse cultures and singing styles by understanding the past and present through data and researched community perceptions. Paul’s collaborative and independent publications appear in the Journal of Voice, Journal of Singing, and College Music Society Symposium, with presentations of ongoing research at the NATS National Conference, Voice Foundation Symposium, Pan American Vocology Symposium, and others.
Paul is an avid recitalist who enjoys delving into underrepresented composers and works using singing as a social justice practice. Their most recent recital featured a complete performance of Stephen Mark Kohn’s American Folk Song Set with photography of minoritized social groups from American history. Additional recitals include A Celebration of Barbara Strozzi, American Women in Song, Women’s Own Stories, and The Seasons, a collaborative recital featuring music based on the four seasons in 12 languages. A particularly enthusiastic lover of chamber works, Paul’s repertoire includes John Corigliano’s Three Irish Folksong Settings, Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Auf dem Strom, and Der Hochzeitsbraten, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Along the Field, Barbara Strozzi’s Hor che Apollo, and other chamber works and song cycles.
Paul is a part of the Barbara Doscher pedagogic lineage and studied with John Nix during their Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy and Performance degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio. They also earned a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Delaware, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Hartwick College. Paul is pursuing additional studies at the Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop (Boston Conservatory at Berklee) this summer and is honored to be an alum of the 2023 NATS Intern Program (West Chester University) where they learned from Cindy Dewey. They have also completed the Certificate in Vocology program (National Center for Voice and Speech), a Certificate of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace program (University of South Florida), and additional studies at the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute (Shenandoah University).
Voice Type: Tenor
Music Styles Taught: Opera; Folk; Rock; Classical; Pop; Musical Theatre
Availability: I am available as a performer; I have a wait-list for private lessons; I am available as a clinician or presenter; I accept students through a college or university program