Voice professor Patrick Mason to retire
Professor of Voice Patrick Mason will retire in May after 24泭years at CU Boulder.
Hes walked the halls of the College of Music for more than 20 years, shaping the singing careers of countless men and women and enriching the lives of faculty, staff and student colleagues. Now, Professor of Voice Patrick Mason has announced that he will retire from teaching at the end of this academic year.
He says it was just time to step back. I wanted to leave while I was still teaching really well, and right now I know I have colleagues I can trust to carry on what weve started.
Originally from Ohio, Mason has become known throughout his nearly 50-year career as a master of many genres. Since the 1970s, the baritone has collaborated with early music ensembles and, composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, guitarist David Starobin and orchestras and opera companies around the world.
He says each stage of his career shaped what hes been able to accomplish.
Early on it was the and the on Fifth Avenue in New York. Then the Waverly Consort and great opportunities to sing in Alice Tully Hall and the [Met] Cloisters. Thats where I learned a lot of confidence and how to be a good ensemble singer.
Indeed, Mason has enjoyed a storied performance career that saw him premiere works by George Crumb and adapt Mozarts for comic book with friend and artist P. Craig Russelland everything in between. And while his varied career gave him the chops to train singers at CU Boulder and at the State University of New York at Fredonia, he says his time as an educator has always informed his singing as well.
Teaching made me a better singer, and vice versa, he explains. Working with students on the issues they havebuilding technique and getting back to the basicsmakes me constantly re-examine my singing.
As he prepares to hand off the reins of a program he helped shape, Mason says hell continue to nurture close relationships with the students and faculty whom hes grown to love over 24泭years.
When I left Fredonia, this was the only place I was going to go. The college has always been known for its collegiality, and thats what Ill miss the most. Ive been able to collaborate with so many of my colleagues here, instrumentalists and singers. Theyre wonderful musicians and wonderful people, and our students pick up on that and it teaches them to respect each other as well.
He says hell spend his retirement getting back to the basics: rekindling a deep-seated love of music.
Im so excited to be able to go to more concerts! Ill get to do what so many people in this town do, and thats take advantage of the music created here. Ill get back to being a music lover.
And he says thatthe musicis what its always been about for him.
All I wanted in life, ever since I was a kid, was a life in music. I didnt care what that was or what it looked like. And thats what I got.
Mason is the Berton Coffin Faculty Fellow and past chair of the Department of Voice and Opera. He has degrees from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.