{"id":20139,"date":"2022-11-29T14:44:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T19:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=20139"},"modified":"2022-12-08T15:11:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T20:11:23","slug":"music-alumnae-connect-developing-artists-with-rare-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/music-alumnae-connect-developing-artists-with-rare-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Music alumnae connect developing artists with rare experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

College roommates. Best friends. Business partners.<\/p>\n

Voice majors Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Heather McKenzie Carson Patterson have been busy performing, raising families and launching their own studios since graduating from Furman in 2004.<\/p>\n

But their latest venture \u2013 On Stage Collective \u2013 is a collaboration between the two sopranos.\u00a0Billed as a \u201cdistinctive production company that specializes in \u2026 once-in-a-lifetime\u201d performance opportunities, it gives performers of various ages, backgrounds and training from across the country a chance to sing at top-level venues and gain experiences they don\u2019t normally get. On Stage Collective casts a variety of performers, ages 13 through adults, including those who are interested in pursuing a career in the performing arts, some who are active professional singer-actors, along with hobbyists who have other day jobs but are interested in living out their performance dreams.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Heather McKenzie Patterson ’04<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Katherine Sandoval Taylor ’04<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA priority is \u2026 to not just study singing,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cWe want them to be able to sing on a well-known stage and get that immersive experience.\u201d\u00a0In June, they took 51 students chosen from nationwide auditions.
\n<\/span>\u201cThe difference is learning by doing,\u201d Taylor said, \u201cactual performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experienced performers
\n<\/strong>
\nAfter Furman, Taylor went on to earn her master\u2019s in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her career includes musical theater, performing with symphonies and repertory companies. Taylor has performed professionally all over the country, experiences that included two national jazz tours, one-woman cabaret shows, as a soloist with various symphonic orchestras, and dozens of roles in musicals with both opera and regional repertory theatre companies.<\/p>\n

Patterson earned her master\u2019s in vocal performance from Michigan State University, then went on to sing professionally, including performing Schubert\u2019s Mass in A-flat at Carnegie Hall in 2017 with the Masterwork Festival Chorus and New York City Chamber Orchestra.
\nBoth women also run their own voice and piano studios, Taylor in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Patterson in St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n

In 2019, they launched On Stage Collective and scheduled their first show for July 2020 for Feinstein\u2019s\/54 Below, which included 26 performers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKatherine and I wear a lot of hats in our own businesses, but this really stretched us to use all our skills,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cWe had no staff, nobody to help us. We arranged the music ourselves. We were so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then COVID-19 hit.<\/p>\n

Crestfallen, they postponed the show to 2021, then had to postpone again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult, especially after all the planning and preparation,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cIt was a scary time to be in the arts.\u201d
\n<\/span>Undaunted, they planned a show for 2022 and assembled a diverse cast from among their own students and others from the wide network of voice teachers, choral directors and theater contacts they\u2019d made over the years who performed a variety of numbers from \u201cA Chorus Line,\u201d \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d and \u201cSmokey Joe\u2019s Caf\u00e9,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

They also served as producers while coaching the singers individually. Taylor also directed the shows.<\/p>\n

It was held at 54 Below, dubbed \u201cBroadway\u2019s Beloved Basement Club\u201d by The New York Times, for allowing singers to connect with audiences in an intimate setting. On Stage\u2019s first performance was so well-received that the club\u2019s staff \u2013 who hear professionals every night \u2013 asked to stay for the second show, Taylor said.\u00a0During their week in New York, the students had master classes with Broadway stars Kara Lindsay, Kevin Massey and Jonathan Kirkland. The group also enjoyed Broadway shows, river boat cruises and other New York City adventures.<\/p>\n

It started with Furman Singers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Katherine Sandoval Taylor ’04 and Heather McKenzie Patterson ’04 during a Furman Singers tour<\/p><\/div>\n

Taylor and Patterson became fast friends in college, where they were members of the Furman Singers. And they say their time at Furman \u2013 studying with music professors Trudy Hines Fuller and Lisa Browne Barksdale \u2013 prepared them well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur professors expected excellence from us (so) we expect a lot of ourselves,\u201d said Patterson. \u201cAll of that stems from our early experience at Furman.\u00a0Though On Stage began as a passion project, the partners\u2019 strategic plan involves adding more of these events throughout the year in New York and other cities and venues, such as Disney World in Orlando, Los Angeles and Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid in high school or college, this would have been a dream,\u201d said Patterson. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a great memory, but a valuable educational experience \u2013 learning by doing.\u201d\u00a0Taylor and Patterson hold virtual auditions through their website<\/a> and invite anyone to audition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College roommates. Best friends. Business partners.
\nVoice majors Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Heather McKenzie (Carson) Patterson have been busy performing, raising families and launching their own studios since graduating from Furman in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":21922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,39,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-music","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}