Patrick Conway
Born in Illinois, Patrick was raised in urban California before he traveled with his birth family to live in Kampala, Uganda. His family traveled extensively; visiting villages, and seeking wild, mountainous places in the central African region. He returned to the USA and began university at UC Santa Cruz and graduated with a BS in Psychology. He later went on to earn his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts. After finishing graduate school, Patrick began an academic career in psychology that took him and his family first to Oregon and later to New Zealand, they lived for 8 years. The natural, rugged beauty of New Zealand, especially South Island, offered sanctuary for a pilgrim of nature. Though a small country, New Zealand is home to many artists, writers and composers, and Patrick established a friendship with Douglas Lilburn, one of the country’s most influential composers. Lilburn found his musical inspiration in the New Zealand landscape; reflected in the titles of many of his compositions; A Song of Islands, A Prodigal Country. Patrick found Lilburn’s sonorities and rhythms to be fresh and evocative.
Patrick returned to Oregon and settled in Bend, which offers at its doorstep the high desert to the east and the high Cascade peaks to the west. He frequently deserts the city and takes to exploring the canyons and buttes of the desert, and scaling the alpine slopes in later summer.
About his musical evolution. From an early age, Patrick improvised music on the piano, and studied classical piano, and then began to develop his compositional craft. Influences in Patrick's music include Debussy, Vaughan Williams, John Adams, and Ralph Towner, as well as the music of Douglas Lilburn. Patrick also assimilated some rhythmic and melodic impressions of the indigenous musical of central Africa where he spent some of his youth. He recalls the bodily vibrations felt standing among a legion of Baganda drummers outside of Kampala welcoming the return of their King.
Patrick now divides his time between Bend, Oregon and Nelson, New Zealand. When not composing music, he enjoys the poetry of Mary Oliver, reading natural history, and explores the deserts and mountains of the Great Basin desert..