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The aAmerican conductor, baritone, counter-tenor and music pedagogue, Patrick M. Walders, obtained his BME dgree from the State University of New York in Fredonia; his Master of Music degree from the Westminster Choir College; and his DMA from the University of Maryland in College Park.
Patrick Walders maintains an active career as a professional vocalist, music educator, church musician, clinician, and conductor. As Director of Choral Activities at San Diego State University, Walders conducts the Aztec Concert Choir and the SDSU Chamber Choir, and carries a teaching load consisting of undergraduate and graduate conducting classes, literature courses, and ear training. His research interests include Vocal Pedagogy, diction, and rehearsal techniques especially in ensemble settings, and how dance and movement relates to conducting gesture.
For seven years, Patrick Walders served as the Director of Choral Activities at James Madison University. Within the Commonwealth’s largest School of Music, he directed the award-winning JMU Chorale (60 voices) and Madison Singers (25 voices), supervised three additional choirs, taught undergraduate and graduate conducting classes, and graduate choral literature. Under his direction, the choirs performed domestically and abroad. In March 2009, the JMU Chorale and Madison Singers were featured in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, with program highlights that included the Raminsh Magnificat and a fully-staged production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera, The Unicorn, Gorgon, and Manticore.
On the international stage, the JMU Chorale performed Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem in London and won first prize in the Youth Choir category (up to age 27) at the 2009 Llangollen International Music Festival (Eisteddfod) in Wales. The Madison Singers placed third in the Chamber Choir category in 2009, and in 2006 traveled to Germany and the Czech Republic, performing Carmina Burana with the Czech National Orchestra, for which Patrick Walders was the choral preparer.
For four seasons, Patrick Walders was the Associate Conductor of the National Philharmonic Chorale, and Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic Singers. In 2006, he made his National Philharmonic debut conducting George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, earning critical acclaim from The Washington Post, and in 2007, made his Kennedy Center debut conducting John Hilliard’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
As a baritone/countertenor, Patrick Walders has sung professionally throughout the northeastern USA. He has been a member of the prestigious Westminster Choir and Westminster Symphonic Choir (Princeton) under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt, regularly performing under the batons of some of the world’s finest orchestral conductors. He has participated in recording projects with The American Boychoir School, The Folger Consort, The Choral Scholars, The National Cathedral, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In the Washington D.C. area, he performed regularly with the Washington Bach Consort (Director: J. Reilly Lewis), Chantry (Director: David Taylor), and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Director: Philip Cave). |
