
033: Patrick Conlon—a new normal for a contemporary composer

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Patrick Conlon claims that each generation brings a new normal, and his is a genre-busting approach to composing that draws from his love of all styles of music to influence his contemporary compositions. He is the assistant director of the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklaoma located in the Bricktown District of Oklahoma City.
In this episode of The Spirit of Leading podcast, I talk to Patrick about his work, which was a major factor in his being named to the 2016 class of NextGen Under 30 Oklahoma, sponsored by NextGen Leadership Oklahoma.
Patrick also received the inaugural Mark Costello Spirit award, in honor of the late Oklahoma Labor Commissioner known for his optimistic outlook and spirit about the future of Oklahoma.
Patrick is often found working with songwriters and producers and teaching Film Scoring, Music Culture, and Production classes.
An excerpt from one of his compositions, Who Knows if the Moon’s a Balloon? is featured in this podcast beginning at 7:20 into the program. Patrick wrote the composition with a band in Los Angeles a few years ago. His inspiration for then piece is an E. E. Cummings poem. Patrick has arranged the composition for a few different genres such as a classical art song and a jazz standard. Patrick describes the version featured in this podcast as, “a cross-over rock sort of thing.”
Other tracks on the podcast composed by Patrick Conlon include:
- Experiment 2-2
- Lush Soundscape
- IWroteAStringThing
- Remembrance of Things to Come
- Mirror Sermon
- ElectroBassCoolDetectives
Related links
Patrick Conlon website
Patrick Conlon scoring examples listen here
Academy of Contemporary Music @ UCO learn more here


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