Willis Patterson

Willis Charles Patterson (November 27, 1930 – October 22, 2025) was an American bass-baritone, conductor, editor, music arranger and professor emeritus/Associate Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. A Fulbright Scholar and the winner of the Marian Anderson Award, he performed in opera houses and concert halls internationally. He served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians and as executive secretary of the National Black Music Caucus.

Early life and education Willis Charles Patterson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on November 27, 1930. He was the son of Edward Curtis and Kathleen Gulley Patterson. He grew up in a poor family in the Northern part of Ann Arbor. His biological parents were not married, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather. His stepfather hauled coal for a living and struggled with alcoholism. He had nine siblings on the Patterson side of the family whom he lived with, in addition to 10 other siblings from his biological father. He enlisted in the United States Air Force after graduating in 1949, and was stationed in France as a senior stenographer in the Field Services Division during the early 1950s.

Patterson began his undergraduate education at Michigan State Normal College (MSNC; now Eastern Michigan University) where he was a pupil of Robert O. Hoffelt and sang in the MSNC Singers. He transferred to the University of Michigan (UM) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 1958 and a Master of Music in 1959. He later pursued a doctoral degree at Wayne State University;

Career Academic Patterson began his teaching career at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1959.

Patterson left his post at VSC to join the faculty of the University of Michigan (UM) in 1968. He was the first African-American professor in the UM's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. In 1976 he succeeded tenor John McCollum as chair of the voice faculty at UM. In 1979 he became Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Minority Affairs in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Berklee College of Music scholar William C. Banfield stated, "The real foundation layer for Black graduate recruitment and retention at the University of Michigan was Dr. Willis Patterson... He also is responsible for probably one of the most dynamic classes of Black music scholars and artists across at least two or three generations as he provided leadership as a voice professor, and then dean of the school for thirty plus years". He retired from UM in 1999. In 1985 he was main organizer of the Black American Music Symposium held on the campus of UM. From 1990-1995 he was president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.

Singer, conductor, and music director In 1958 Patterson won the Marian Anderson Award, and in 1961 he placed second in the finals of the National Association of Teachers of Singing contest at the national level of the competition. In 1961 he sang the role of the Old Hebrew in Samson and Delilah with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and conductor Paul Paray with Jean Madeira and Albert da Costa in the title parts. The following year he was heard again with the orchestra as the bass soloist in Paray's Agnus Dei with the composer conducting his final performances as leader of the DSO. In 1963 he portrayed King Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors in a televised version of the opera broadcast on NBC-TV. He also recorded this opera role for RCA. That same year he was the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. In 1968 he was a soloist in music by Haydn with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music, In 1969 he founded the Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale. That same year he was the bass soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Lexington Choral Society at Symphony Hall. In 1974 he sang the role of Porgy in a concert version of Porgy and Bess with the Miami Beach Symphony.

On February 11, 1976, Patterson was the featured soloist in the world premieres of two songs for baritone and orchestra by composer Edgar Rogie Clark: "Kaffir Drinking Song" and "This Wicked Race" which he sang with the DSO under Paul Freeman. In 1977 he performed Howard Swanson's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and Dorothy Rudd Moore's "Weary Blues" in the New York Philharmonic's "Celebration of Black Composers" concert given at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. That same year he portrayed Jacquino in Fidelio with Opera/South Guild at Jackson State University. In 1978 he portrayed Sparafucile in Rigoletto with the Opera Association of Western Michigan.

Patterson conducted the Ambrosian Singers on Jessye Norman's 1979 album Spirituals. He was the bass soloist and narrator in the world premiere of Undine Smith Moore's Scenes from the Life of a Martyr in 1982 by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. In 1985 he was appointed music director of The First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor.

Personal life and death On June 21, 1958, Patterson married Frankie Bouyer. They had four children together.

Selected publications and recordings

The New Negro Spiritual Collection (2002) The Unlikely Saga of a Singer from Ann Arbor (2015) Art Songs by Black American Composers (1981) The Second Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers (2002) Spirituals (1991) Amazing Grace (1991)