Founder, Artistic Director, and Conductor:
Dr. Michael Robert Patch
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Dr. Michael Robert Patch holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. He also has a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from San Francisco State University. And he holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree in K-12 Choral Music from the UMKC Conservatory.
Dr. Patch has worked with Dr. Robert Bode, Dr. Eph Ehly, Dr. Charles Robinson, Dr. Gustavo Halley, Vance George, David Xiques, and Charles Bruffy. He has also had an extensive performance career, singing with choirs of all shapes and sizes, including the Grammy Award- winning Kansas City Chorale, Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus. Dr. Patch’s voice can be heard on a Grammy-nominated recording of Rheinberger’s music, performed by the Kansas City Chorale, and as a soloist and chorister for a recording of Elinor Remick Warren’s music, performed by the Pacific Mozart Ensemble.
Dr. Patch created Choral Spectrum with the vision of creating an environment where all people can feel safe, welcome, and accepted for who they truly are, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, or if their voice matches their perceived gender or true identity.
Principal Accompanist and Pianist:
John Livingston
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John Livingston has worked extensively as a collaborative pianist, getting his start at the age of 13. Since then he has had a continuous stream of collaborative experiences ranging from choirs, to musical theatre, to college instrumental lessons and recitals, and more.
In 2009, Mr. Livingston partnered with a local community theatre company, Pentacle Theater, in their production of “My Fair Lady”. Hooked by this initial foray into musical theater, Mr. Livingston continued to work with Pentacle Theater on 6 of their following musical productions. During this partnership, his talents were developed as both a rehearsal and performance pianist for musical theater. Beyond this work, John continued to strengthen his reputation as an accompanist, working with local middle and high school choirs. Notably, he accompanied West Salem High School’s choir in their 1st place performance in Oregon State High School Choir competition in the year 2013.
Being accepted to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013, John studied Piano Performance under the highly-sought after tutelage of Dr. Robert Weirich, earning his Bachelor’s of Music degree (cum laude) in 2017. During his undergrad John worked closely with singers from all the voice studios which culminated in being asked to play Stravinsky’s famously difficult aria “No Word from Tom” from The Rake’s Progress at commencement ceremony in the Kauffman Center. John was subsequently accepted into the Master’s program at UMKC and was awarded one of the Opera Accompanying graduate assistantships. John has served as rehearsal pianist for Hänsel und Gretel, Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, and Johan Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus. During his time at UMKC, along with all the work with singers, John also incorporated extensive instrumental accompanying, playing for lessons and recitals for cellists, violinists, oboists, trombonists, and more.
During his Master’s, John also began a relationship with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, playing for their Opera to Go program and subbing as a vocal coach for their Resident Artists. In the same vein, John performed with new opera company in Kansas City, Opera 180 for their premier production “Bon Operatit!” in April of 2018. John is also a founding member and principal accompanist of Choral Spectrum, a LGBTQ and supporting choir which is the first of its kind in Kansas City.
Besides his undergrad work with Dr. Robert Weirich, John has had masterclasses with esteemed teachers including Gilbert Kalish, Alon Goldstein, and Margot Garret. John recently completed his Master’s degree at UMKC having studied with the 2013 Van Cliburn third prize winner, Sean Chen.
John’s relationship with the Lyric Opera led to him being chosen to be the Resident Artist Coach/Accompanist for the KC Lyric Opera’s 2019-2020 season. John also serves as Adjunct Faculty at Avila University where he teaches collaborative piano and serves a staff accompanist.