Sponsored by Richard & Jo Ann Stillinger
Patty grew up on the north shore of Long Island surrounded by trees, salt water and music. Her father was a big band sax player, cocktail pianist and public school band director, her mother sang 40’s standards while cooking and her brother is a jazz trumpet player. At three, she began playing piano and reading music even before reading words.
As a child she dabbled with most of the wind instruments and took choir in high school. It was while studying Animal Science at Penn State University that she started the bassoon. She dropped her boyfriend and her academic classes; she had found her instrument.
Performing Sibelius’s Second Symphony under Leonard Bernstein during one of her two summers at the Tanglewood Music Center was one of the highlights of her musical life. Being in the wilderness with horses and dogs is the highlight of the rest of her life.
She teaches music at Galileo Math and Science Magnet School in Eagle, where she lives with her husband and best friend Rick and their many furry, four-footed children. She enjoys endurance horseback riding, dogs, swimming, whitewater canoeing and reading. Her one wish: more hours in a day.
