Melody weaves through new music director's life

Intermountain Catholic

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Brett Patterson, a graduate of the Madeleine Choir School and Judge Memorial High School, has returned to the Diocese of Salt Lake as the music director at Holy Family Catholic Church in Ogden. IC photo by Christine Young

OGDEN - Brett Patterson grew up singing in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, left to attend college, but now has returned as Holy Family Catholic Church’s new music director.

A graduate of the Madeleine Choir School, Judge Memorial Catholic High School, Patterson was a treble chorister from 1995 to 1999, and the head chorister and cantor from 1997 to 1999. He was in the first sixth-grade class when the school expanded to the eighth grade. He sang in the Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir for three years after he graduated. By then he sang tenor and baritone.

Music is in the Patterson family. His father is Myron Patterson, the music director at St. Olaf Parish in Bountiful, where his mother, Robin, sings in the choir.

"I grew up being around music constantly," Patterson said. "There is a picture at my parents’ house of me when I was in kindergarten sitting on the organ bench with my father while he is playing at a service. I was just sitting there watching. At a very early age I was fascinated with music."

Although Brett Patterson started playing the piano when he was 5, he didn’t start playing the organ until he was in his second year at the Choir School. Then he studied with the cathedral organist, Robert Ridgell. "That was great because then I got organ lessons on the organ at the cathedral, which is not bad for an organ student," Patterson said.

After graduating from Judge Memorial in 2003, Patterson went on to received a bachelor of music in organ performance from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., in 2007. He then went to the University of Texas at Austin for a master’s degree in music in organ performance and sacred music.

He continued to sing while in college, touring England and France with the Pacific Luther Choral Union. They were invited to perform at the University of Cambridge. "I also sang with the University of Texas Chamber Singers, which is their elite group," Patterson said. "We made two CD recordings on the Koch labels, which is a classical recording."

While at the University of Texas, he studied organ performance and improvisation with Gerre Hancock, whom he had met years earlier while visiting New York with his parents. At the time, Hancock was a Master of Choristers at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, a choir school on par with those in England. "Hancock has been in Salt Lake City to perform in the Eccles Organ Series, and it was nice to reminisce with him," Patterson said.

Among his collegiate experiences were singing at the American Choral Directors Association in Oklahoma City and performing the national anthem with the choir for the 2008 nationally televised debate between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. He said it was amazing to sing before a crowd that size, and to have a moment in politics, and "it was cool to see what goes on behind the scenes."

In 2008, he studied the English choral tradition at King’s College and St. John’s College at Cambridge in England. He was also able to observed classes at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.

"It was a memorable summer, to say the least," Patterson said. "It really helps build upon my experience from the Choir School, and having worked closely with Gerre Hancock, and see what the basis of the American choir school, and to see them at such an intimate level."

Last spring, Patterson hosted St. John’s College choir when it finished its U.S. tour in Austin. All of these experiences, he said, began with the Choir School. "At the time, I did not think about it because we were all so young. But I knew we were doing great music. It did not hit me until I was doing my undergraduate degree in a music history class and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, we sang that Mass,’ or I would hear a chant we had done."

Now ready to start his career, Patterson said he feels fortunate to get a full time job in his field right out of graduate school. And, he added, "It is nice to be able to be near my family, and in a Catholic church, and in an amazing building that is so welcoming to music. It really enhances music so much."