Biography
Patricia Auchterlonie is a singer, performer, and maker looking to explore all that is playful/colourful/unexpected. She is fascinated with the human voice and with textile media, especially the possibile intertwinings of sound and thread. Current obsessions include english folk music, balkan singing, tapestry weaving, and troubadour music. She is interested in teasing out the slow fermentation of making processes and in risky co-making - that is to say, creating new collaborative work that allows for vulnerability and experimentation.
Upcoming work includes: Loomeweight at hcmf// 2024 (devised with frequent collaborator Hestor Dart) and creating the role of Lucia II in Beat Furrer's new opera Der grosse Feuer at the Zurich Opera House in 2025. She will also be performing as part of Adam de la Cour's experimental Christmas Panto at LCMF 2024.
Patricia recently made her debut with the LA Phil and at the Royal Opera House Linbury in the role of Superfan in Oliver Leith & Matt Copson's critically acclaimed Last Days. She is an enthusiastic creator of new operatic roles and, in addition, has recently worked on new operas with Shadwell Opera, Nevil Holt Festival, Music Theatre Wales, and Britten Pears Arts. She has also recently performed at Snape Maltings, Konzerthaus Dortmund, starptelpa festival in Riga, and at Cafe Oto, leading Musarc Choir through a performance with experimental music legend, Keiji Haino.
Patricia is a keen collaborator, improvisor, and newly, a composer. 2024 has seen regular performances of Loomeweight I, a new project made with Hestor Dart, which explores the meeting point of the voice and weaving. She has a duo with saxophonist David Zucchi, called Honkus, who are embarking on a commissioning project for 2025. She also recently collaborated with artists Sam Belinfante and Laure Prouvost on a sprawling, structurally guided improvisation for the opening of Prouvost's installation Ohmmm age Oma je ohomma mama at Kunsthalle Wein as part of Weiner Festwoche 2023.
Patricia has performed Stockhausen's enigmatic epic Sternklang with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, worked on a Gold Award Winning broadcast for BBC Radio 3 with Neil Luck (New York Festivals Radio Awards 2023), and survived Ragnar Kjartansson's An die Musik, an 8-hour epic endurance piece for 8 singers and 8 pianos (London Contemporary Music Festival). She has recorded for NMC, Mètier Records and been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM. She sang at IMPULS Festival 2023 (supported by Help Musicians) and premiered new works by Evan Johnson with pianist Ben Smith (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival). She was also a participant in the inaugural cohort of the 2023-24 VOICEBOX programme, delivered by Juliet Fraser in partnership with Britten Pears Arts; City, University of London; Sound Festival and Dartington Music Summer School. She works regularly with London-based progressive choral collective Musarc as a vocal coach & music director.
Operatic roles have included Child in The Devil's Den by Isabella Gellis (Shadwell Opera), Hannah Arendt in Amor Mundi by Matt Rogers (Cambridge Refugee Week), Where the Wild Things Are by Oliver Knussen (Bamberger Symphoniker/ Shadwell Opera), Violet by Tom Coult (cover - Music Theatre Wales/ Britten Pears Arts), Lei in Passion by Pascal Dusapin (cover - Music Theatre Wales), Kes'Cha'Au in RUNE by Alastair White (Tête-a-Tête, released by Métier Records), and Duncan House by Rasmus Zwicki (Plus Minus Ensemble), Miss Donnithorne in Miss Donnithorne's Maggot (Ubu Ensemble) and Dido in Dido and Aneas (Toronto Theatre of Early Music). She has participated in research and development on numerous new projects, including works by by Colin Matthews, Philip Venebles, and Richard Baker.
Patricia has worked with Festival Acht Brücken, IEMA Ensemble, Cantando Admont, Manchester International Festival, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Contemporary Music Festival, Plus Minus Ensemble, An Assembly, Orpheus Sinfonia, and Illuminate Women's Music. She has given performances at Snape Maltings, City University, Wigmore Hall, The Barbican Centre, Sir John Soane's Museum, Bermondsey Project Space, Colourspace, the Courtauld Gallery, Helgi's Bar and APT Deptford.
Patricia was the 2017/18 Carne Junior Fellow at Trinity Laban. She holds a master’s degree with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto with honours. She is also a singing teacher, choral director, and has lead workshops on healthy vocal production in non-traditional performance. In her spare time, she's an avid reader, a seamstress, a gardener, an indomitable knitter, and a shameless lover of the banjo (which she plays with enthusiasm rather than skill).
