Patrice Micheals
By: Alaina Nauroth
Biography
Patrice Micheals is a lyric soprano and composer who was born in Southern California on September 11th, 1956. She is currently 65 years old. Throughout her youth she played the flute and participated in theatre and vocal training. She was surrounded by the heavy culture of the arts which heavily influenced her life and career. Thus inspiring her extensive and broad education which includes training in both theatre arts and music.
Michaels obtained a Bachleors of Art in Music and Theater from Pomona College. Following graduation from Pomona she went onto recieve a MFA in Vocal Performance from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a certificate from the Music Theatre Studio Ensemble at The Banff Centre.
Upon entering college she believed she wanted to study flute as her primary instrument, but quickly changed her mind as her fascination for opera and composition expanded. By the time she entered her Masters program at The University of Minnesota she had extensive experience in the world of Opera and Musical Theatre both as a performer and stage hand who assisted the productions. This education continued while she studied at the University where she performed in Operas as Carmen and Lehár's Merry Widow.
Alongside her developing performance career Micheals also studied composition under the guidance of Dominick Argento, an acclaimed classical composer. Through his influence and inspiration she wrote many single compositions as well as an Opera.
Post graduation Micheals spent time at The Banff center where she trully developed her voice and musical style, falling in love with classical baroque music and truly developing her voice around that style. This paved the way for many other musical endeavours within her career which brought her to the successful position she is at now.
Currently Micheals works as Director of Vocal Studies at The University of Chicago. In additon to this she also continues to perform and compose.
Musical Journey
Post graduating from the University of Minnesota with her MFA in Classical Voice, Patrice Micheals studied at a residency at The Banff Center in Canada where she intensively studied baroque music, finding that the style of music worked well in her voice and compositions.
During this time Micheals also began auditioning for professional companies. She recieved a place under Lee Schaenen of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Center for American Artists but after one of the current members decided to stay was then told her spot was no longer available. Despite this Micheals stayed and studied with Schaenen's wife who happened to be a famous language coach.
Micheals then landed a position in the chorus of Chicago's Music of the Baroque under the leadership of Music Director Tom Wickman. Tom Wickman is the man which Micheals accredits her vocal capabilities claiming that she "didn't really know how to sing until (she) met Tom." This was a career altering moment for her as she gained loads of exposure which led to countless opportunities, including her record deal at Cedille Records.
in 1991 at a concert which Micheals was performing of Argento's song cycle, the Six Elizabethan Songs, she was noticed by James Ginsburg, the owner of Cedille Records (son of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the future husband of Patrice Micheals). Ginsburg approached Micheals after her recital saying that knew he wanted to work with her immediatley upon watching her performance because of her peculiar repertoire in which she constantly performed as well as her beautiful voice.
Following her record label signing she has had great success in both her career as a composer, singer, and musical educator. Patrice Micheals uses her skill set to create collaborative compositons and performances which is exemplified through her abiltiy of combining the world of classical music and jazz or theatrical elements with classical styles and in many other ways. Micheals' voice has been included on 25 albums, including the Decca, Neos, Albany and Amadis labels, as well as 14 albums for Cedille Records the comapny which she signed with.
As well as her own personal career Patrice works as an educator for music at a collegiate level. Formerly Micheals was a Professor of Music at Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music and currently she serves as Director of Vocal Studies at The University of Chicago.
Program Page from Patrice Micheals Recital:
The Notorious RBG in Song
Cover Art for Patrice Micheals song cycle:
The Long View
Cover Art for Patrice Micheals song cycle: Resolved
Patrice Micheals Compositions
In addition to Micheals astounding performance career, she also has a very successful compositional life which is very unique to many other classical composors due to the topics in which she disscusses.
Patrice Micheals is a very progressive induvidual and uses her musical platform to promote activism and justice for all. She focuses a large sum of her compositions on a historical or political topics highlighting Women or minorities within history. She uses her music to bring attention to influential women in history or people who have been silenced to tell their stories and how they fought to improve the world.
Below is a video example of one of her works exemplifying her encouraging works of women in history which is titled Resolved: Songs of Women's Sufferage and the 19th Amendment. This is a song cycle which she composed to be sang by an African American woman to disscuss the difficulties that women, specifically black women, experienced in times before they had a political voice. Resolved touches on the topics of both racism and sexism within the system and the lack of equality that was and still is present. The cycle goes through this historical components of how women fought to recieve these rights and make their voices heard.
Another example of Micheals compositions which glorify powerful women in history is her song cycle entitled "The Long View" or more frequently reffered to by the albums name and purpose, "The Notorious RBG".
This is a 9 song cycle which Patrice Micheals orginally wrote to her Mother in Law, Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a birthday present to highlight her personal and professional life. She illuminates the Supreme Court Justices life through this composition by creating settings of text from letters, remembrances, and even Court opinions. The 45 minute song cyle discusses the justices legal opinions, letters, and lectures.
Not only does this song cycle show off Micheals typical fashion of politcal and historical music, but it also features another element which Micheals cherishes and often uses, intersection between different styles of music and collaborative performance. The cycle is 45 minutes long and written in a style of American Art Song Tradition using classical influence, but also heavily inspired by jazz and musical theatre which she integrated into the compositon. She also created multiple ways in which this cycle can be performed, in a solo setting with a pianist and solo vocalist or a choral setting with piano in SATB format.
Linked below are two different videos, one being the trailer of the song cycle in which Patrice Micheals is performing in herself and the other is the link to the full 45 minute cycle.
Trailer of "The Long View" by Patrice Micheals
Full Video of "The Long View" by Patrice Micheals Performed at the National Constitution Center
Patrice Micheals continues to highlight women in history through her music as shown in the two examples above and she is not stopping any time soon. Her next work is based on “World War II submariner Doris “Dorrie” Miller and Tokyo Rose (a moniker given to Japanese-American radio broadcaster Iva Toguri D’Aquino) and another project about Age of Enlightenment wax anatomist Anna Morandi Manzolini.” Micheals uses her talents to inspire young women all over the world by not only being a woman composer, but also by disscussing other astonishing women who are often neglected by history text books.
It is truly a gift to women and people all over the world to be able to be educated by the beautiful music of Patrice Micheals.
Below is a link to Patrice Micheals personal website where more information on herself and her incredible compositions can be found. Through this website readers are able to keep up to date when she releases new music including her compositons which are currently in the works mentioned above. Please check it out to allow for more exposure intelligent compositions by Patrice Micheals.
Link to Patrice Micheals Website
Sources
“Notorious RBG in Song.” Notorious RBG in Song | The National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/town-hall-video/notorious-rbg-in-song.
“Patrice Michaels Biography, Songs, & Albums.” AllMusic, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/patrice-michaels-mn0001820450/biography.
“Patrice Michaels.” Patrice Michaels, https://www.patricemichaels.com/.
“Stay Thirsty Magazine.” Stay Thirsty Magazine, https://staythirstymagazine.blogspot.com/p/patrice-michaels-composer.html.