Patrick Whitehead

In Graduates, Maryland by jan_mfp

Patrick WhiteheadWebsite: http://patrickwhitehead.net/

Long time performer and teacher Pat Whitehead was inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong at age 5. At age 8, he began playing in his school band. His broad and varied career spans the decades as a soloist, orchestral, chamber, opera, commercial, and improvising musician.

He founded The Monumental Brass Quintet and has recorded and toured extensively throughout the U.S. with this ensemble. In June of 2014 Pat will perform as part of the Momentary Quartet comprised of MfP collegues, Jane Buttars, Lin Foulk, and Harold Mckinney at the annual conference of The International Society for Improvised Music in New York City.

As a free – lance trumpeter, Pat’s performed with orchestras at the Kennedy Center and Constitution Hall. He’s also performed with the Annapolis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Gettysburg Symphony, the Annapolis Opera, Baltimore Opera, Concert Artists of Baltimore,. Additionally, Pat has recorded for the PBS and ABC television networks, Voice of America, and has performed on numerous radio and TV programs.

Pat serves on the faculties, as instructor of trumpet, at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Levine School of Music in Washington DC. For several years he served as Coordinator of Brass Chamber Music and Director of Trumpet Ensembles at the Levine School. Pat also maintains his own private teaching studio in Columbia, Maryland.

Through his involvement ( since 2003 ) with Music for People, Pat has become an avid proponent of improvised music. As he progressed through MfP’s Music Leadership Program he’s evolved as a passionate and dynamic facilitator of improvised music workshops. He has presented improv workshops at the Peabody Conservatory’s Prep Division. The Summer Brass Institute hosted by Monumental Brass, the Howard and Montgomery County Maryland public schools, and at various venues in the central Maryland area.   During the 2013 – 14 school year he will lead an improv workshop at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Improvisation is a core component of Pat’s private teaching approach to trumpet.

Pat returns to child in other ways than music. He spends time off, often getting lost, in “Patsburgh” the fictitious town on his toy train layout, The Free State Junction Railway. Considering model railroading as an art form, Pat creates scenes, constructs mountains and landscapes, paints buildings and rail cars. Hearing the locomotive whistles and horns blow always bring a big grin to Pat’s face J. He subscribes to the motto “ It’s never to late to have a happy childhood”