Mezzo-Soprano Patricia Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Music at Kansas State University, teaching studio voice, German and French diction, Song Literature and Vocal Pedagogy. Dr. Thompson earned a Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and was a member and the alto section leader of the St. Olaf Choir. She earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in Voice Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. At IU Dr. Thompson studied with Patricia Stiles and was active on the IU Opera stage, performing as Hata in The Bartered Bride, Cornelia in Julius Caesar, Fillipyevna in Eugene Onegin, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Berta in The Barber of Seville, and as Adelaide in Arabella. She has also been heard nationally as a soloist on the concert stage, recently in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, the Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer, and the Vivaldi Gloria, with upcoming performances in Handel’s Messiah and the St. Matthew Passion.
Dr. Thompson is a member of the Carmel (CA) Bach Festival Professional Chorale, and was instrumental in creating the Youth Chorus Voice Instruction Workshop at the Carmel Bach Festival. Prior to graduate studies at Indiana, she was active in the musical community in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, as a member of the Dale Warland Singers, the Minnesota Opera Chorus and the Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series, where she was heard frequently on “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor. Dr. Thompson is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the College Music Society, as well as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
