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, slow handicraft, and troubadour music. She is interested in 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 projects include a new large-scale work, Garland, by Oliver Leith for Bold Tendancies 2025 and a performance of a new work by Leoni King with the Britten Sinfonia. She is also devising/improvising the score for a new ballet, made collaboratively with artist Sarah Kate Wilson and dancer Maria Vincentelli. She has recently been seen at hcmf// 2024 with her textile-improvisation project, Loomeweight I and at the Zurich Opera House, creating the role of Lucia II in Beat Furrer's new opera Der grosse Feuer.
Patricia frequently works as a creator of new operatic roles and will be back at ROH in 2025 for a revival of in Oliver Leith & Matt Copson's critically acclaimed Last Days. Other 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), and Kes'Cha'Au in RUNE by Alastair White (Tête-a-Tête, released by Métier Records). She has participated in research and development on numerous new projects, including works by by Colin Matthews, Philip Venebles, and Richard Baker.
Patricia is a keen collaborator, improvisor, and maker. 2024/2025 has seen regular performances of Loomeweight I, a new project made with Hestor Dart, which brings together vocal improvisation and weaving. She is currently commissioning new works for voice and saxophone with David Zucchi for performance in 2025/2026. She also recently collaborated on a new theatre work with the Haunted Network Research Initiative called Snartlegog which was performed at Temple of Art and Music in 2024.
Patricia has performed with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Contemporary Music Festival, Snape Maltings, Cantando Admont, Weiner Festwoche, Konzerthaus Dortmund, at starptelpa festival in Riga, and at Cafe Oto, as well as recorded for NMC, Mètier Records and been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM. 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.
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. 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).
