Summers, Patrick
Summers, Patrick
Summers, Patrick, American conductor and musicologist; b. Washington, Ind., Aug. 14, 1963. He received his education at Ind. Univ. From 1989 to 1994 he was music director of the San Francisco Opera Center, where he conducted the U.S. premiere of Reimann’s Die Gespenstersonate in 1990. He also conducted its touring company, the Western Opera Theater, throughout the U.S. and Canada. He likewise made frequent appearances as a conductor with the San Francisco Opera. In 1994 he made his first appearance with Opera Australia conducting La Cenerentola. In 1996 he was engaged to conduct Hoiby’s The Tempest at the Dallas Opera. He conducted his own realization of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the San Francisco Opera in 1997, the same year he led the English Chamber Orch. on a tour of Europe with Olga Borodina and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as guest soloists. In 1998 he became music director of the Houston Grand Opera, and concurrently served as principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Opera from 2001. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. on Dec. 24, 1998, conducting Die Fledermaus. His repertoire is expansive, encompassing scores from the Baroque era to the contemporary period.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire