ACHIEVEMENTS

Beginning to sing solos during high school, Patricia realized quickly that she liked being on stage.  She particularly liked acting, singing, and being on stage all at the same time.  She attended the University of Kansas; during the 1960s their music program was of excellent quality and many students went on to fine careers in music.

At age 19, she saw her first opera, Madame Butterfly, and was completely hooked.  Sitting there, bawling her eyes out every evening at rehearsals, she thought, “Gosh – costumes, orchestra, drama, beautiful music, acting – it’s got everything!  This is absolutely for me!”  She began to audition for contest and opera and her career developed rather quickly from that point while she was still in college.

Her voice teacher, Miriam Stewart-Green, an international singer, author and cultural ambassador in her own right, became Patricia’s mentor during college and remained so throughout her career.  She also worked with Margaret Harshaw, a well-known singer and teacher of the apprentice program with the Santa Fe Opera.

Having sung in many cities throughout the United States, including Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City, Patricia contracted to sing with the New York City Opera from 1968 to 1974.  During this time, she continued to appear in other venues across the nation.

Moving to Europe, she sang over 15 years with the Vienna State Opera.  Feeling most at home in Vienna, this became her base of operations for over 20 years.  During this time, she was also guest performer internationally, singing in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, La Scala in Milan, Barcelona, Geneva, London Covent Garden, Paris, Tokyo and many other locations.

A few of the top soprano roles Wise performed were Lucia, Gilda, Nadia, Violetta, Juliette, Manon, Zerbinetta, and Constanze.  She found that taking certain risks brought an enormous jump in her growth as an artist.

One such risk that was also a lesson in preparation was when she taught herself the long and difficult Strauss role of Die Schweigsame Frau, the silent woman.  She was covering that role being performed by Reri Grist, while performing Gilda and some other roles in Munich.  She spent time in her hotel room memorizing the role, though not intending on performing it anytime soon.  The next day the phone rang; Reri Grist had to leave the performance unexpectedly and, after a few days rehearsal, Patricia was able to move right into the role.

Wise considers herself fortunate to have worked under such wonderful conductors as Julius Rudel, von Karajan, Maazel, Mehta, Karl Böhm, Harian, Abbado, Giulini, Kleiber and Sawallisch.  She has been a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and many others.

Having made numerous recordings, film and television appearances, Patricia Wise has performed in more than fifty major operatic roles from the lyric and coloratura repertoire. She is a frequent adjudicator in international competitions, and holds yearly master classes at the Vienna Conservatory and Salzburg Mozarteum. She also serves as master teacher at the Washington National Opera Domingo Young Artist Program.

Since 1995, she has been Professor of Voice at the Indiana University School of Music.  She spends her summers working with pre-professional singers with BASOTI, an intensive opera singer development program.  Among her students have been young artists at Santa Fe, Brevard, Chatauqua, Central City, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann program, the St. Louis Opera, and the Portland Opera.

When once asked what “eternal truths” she would pass on to aspiring singers, Patricia responded, “I go back to a phrase from Shakespeare, which is one of the things I like to try to live by, and it works in every single phase of life and of music and of relationships: ‘This above all, to thine own self be true.  And it shall follow as the day the night, thou canst not then be false to anyone’ – with revision because he said any man and I just changed that to anyone.”


AWARDS, RECOGNITION

In 1989, Patricia Wise was given the honored title of Kammersängerin from the Austrian State Opera, for long and loyal service to the opera.  This is the feminine declension of the title, Kammersänger, which would be a court singer in the days of the Emperor.

During college, when she first began competing, Patricia won first prize in the Naftzger Young Artist Competition in Wichita, Kansas, the Midland Young Artist Competition in Midland, Texas, and the Dealey Memorial Young Artist Competition in Dallas, Texas, all in 1966.  That same year, she won the Presser Foundation Award and the Lilian Garabedian Award.

In 1971, she was won the Morton Baum Memorial Award in New York City, and she has been listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who since 1982.  In Vienna, Austria in 1990, Wise was awarded the Lieber Augustin Award.


BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCE LIST

Polk’s El Dorado City Directory – 1953; R. L. Polk & Co., Kansas City, MO, pp 167

Polk’s El Dorado City Directory – 1958; R. L. Polk & Co., Kansas City, MO, pp 305

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www.basoti.orf

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listserv.cuny.edu                                                        

www2.ljworld.com

www.sfgate.com                                                        

www.praguepost.com

www.alphadeltapi.org                                                

www.ku.edu

www.musicweb-international.com                            

www.collup.com

www.muny.org                                                          

www.sdopera.com

www.salzburgfestival.at                                             

tiendacine.terra.es

www.amazon.com                                                     

cd.ciao.co.uk

www.henrymollicone.com


telephone / e-mail correspondence with Patricia Wise via patwise@indiana.edu