DR. AARON THOMAS PATTERSON, originally of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, currently resides in Lakeland, Florida. He instructs Performing Arts Leadership and Marketing at two Polk County School District high schools for students pursuing entrepreneurial careers in music, theatre, and dance. This new program is sponsored in part by Usher Raymond’s New Look Foundation. Aaron received his D.M.A. in Saxophone Performance at Manhattan School of Music with a dissertation entitled Use of Saxophones in West Side Story: A Comparative Analysis of the Original Scores. He holds B.S. Music Education and M.M. Saxophone Performance degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Dr. Keith Young. Dr. Patterson supervised and mentored undergraduate and graduate students participating as instrumental music teachers in the Education Outreach partnership program of Manhattan School of Music.

For over fifteen years, Aaron has been a very active pit orchestra woodwind doubler. He was principal woodwind musician with the Troika 2012-13 national tour of West Side Story. Recent engagements include Addams Family, Once Upon a Mattress, Moving Right Along: The World of Jeff Blumenkrantz, and Barnum. He annually plays for New York Music Theatre Festival productions and regularly gigs with summer stock and community theatres. Aaron is a member of American Federation of Musicians, Harrisburg Wednesday Club, and Carlisle Musical Arts Club.

Outside of music theatre, Aaron is a dynamic classical soloist and chamber musician. For four years he was alto saxophonist with Manhattan Saxophone Quartet and auxiliary clarinetist with Queer Urban Orchestra. MSQ made their Lincoln Center premiere in February 2012. Aaron performed Fernande Decruck’s Sonata in C# as guest soloist with the Butler County Symphony Orchestra (PA) in 2012. Other previous solo engagements include performances with the Johnstown Symphony, International Festival of Women Composers, Sound of America Honors Band and Chorus European Tour, and International Youth Wind Orchestra in Jonköping, Sweden. Aaron has presented numerous clinics and performed in masterclasses and recitals at various annual events including the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and North American

Saxophone Alliance Conferences, and U.S. Navy-sponsored International Saxophone Symposia.