Meet the Director, Mr. Patrick Godon

Patrick Godon Patrick Godon made his debut as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May of 2007, playing one of the solo piano parts along with Mary Sauer in Colin McPhee's Tabuh-Tabuhan: Toccata for Orchestra and Two Pianos, with Alan Gilbert conducting. In 2005, Godon was the featured harpsichord soloist in Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 2 with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, along with Gidon Kremer, violin, and Kristina Blaumane, cello. In 2004, he was the featured harpsichord soloist in Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 4 - Symphony No. 5, along with Alicia Koelz, violin, and Somerlie Aston, oboe. Godon has also appeared a featured soloist in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest and with the DePaul University Wind Ensemble in Hindemith's Konzertmusik. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed for two Dame Myra Hess concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center, broadcast on WFMT.

Patrick Godon made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as second keyboardist at Ravinia in 2003. He was invited to play second keyboard in Bartok's Four Pieces for Orchestra on the CSO's 2005 European tour and again for the 2005 East Coast tour, playing at Carnegie Hall and also playing celesta in Boulez's Notations. For the 2006 Carnegie Hall tour, he played celesta in Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin. He also has appeared with the CSO's MusicNOW Ensemble, playing first keyboard for George Benjamin's Antara and piano solo in Mundry's Panorama Ciego in rehearsals, covering for Daniel Barenboim. In addition, he served as rehearsal pianist for Barenboim and Deborah Voigt for Schoenberg's Erwartung.

A member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for nine years, Patrick Godon has served as first pianist of that orchestra. In April 2007, he was pianist for the Civic Orchestra's performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka. He has played under leading conductors including Alsop, Barenboim, Boulez, Conlon, Davis, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Maazel, Nagano, Robertson, and Slatkin. He has performed in Civic's chamber music masterclasses with Mitsuko Uchida and Thomas Kakuska of the Alban Berg Quartet.

Patrick Godon is president, artistic director, and pianist for the International Chamber Artists (ICA), a chamber music ensemble that he founded in 2006. ICA showcases a diverse group of professional musicians in their twenties and supports musical organizations through collaborations and financial support. Through educational components during performances, ICA seeks to sustain the future of classical music audiences. Discover more about this ensemble at www.ICAmusic.org.

Since July 2003, Godon has been the director of music at Saint Gregory the Great Church in the Andersonville/Edgewater neighborhood, composing and arranging music for liturgies. He led the parish choir on a seven-city performance tour of Italy in March 2007. The highlights of the tour included singing for a mass in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, singing for the 10:30 AM solemn high mass in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, and being the only choir to sing for Pope Benedict XVI at a papal audience.

Patrick studied organ in junior high school and played regularly at Catholic and Lutheran churches. He attended an organ camp hosted by Concordia College in Moorhead, MN for two successive summers and studied with the best organ teachers in the Fargo/Moorhead area. At DePaul, he played for all pieces with the choirs that involved organ, including Faure's Requiem and Britten's oratorio Behold the Lamb. Patrick made his organ debut in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June of 2004 playing Janacek's Taras Bulba. Patrick also writes reviews of new organ music for Clavier Magazine. He was formerly the Music Director for the DePaul University Student Night Mass from 1999-2003.

A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Patrick Godon began his studies with Chicago Symphony principal piano Mary Sauer in 1997. He studied with Andrej Dutkiewitz at the Interlochen Arts Camp in 1995, with Jacob Lateiner in New York City at the Mannes Beethoven Institute in 2001, and opera coaching in Italy through Oberlin Conservatory. He holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance from DePaul University. Patrick met his beautiful wife Keri at DePaul. He soon realized that she was the love of his life and the happy couple married in May of 2004. He is the son of Maurice and Kathy Godon and is one of six children. In his spare moments he enjoys pondering the meaning of life and supporting the arts.