About Patricia Shanks

 

I have trained singers and voice-over artists and taught vocal technique and piano since 1975, and in Orange County California since 1999. I've taught privately and in public and private schools and in college and conservatory settings, including The Young Americans College of the Performing Arts and Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA). I've vocal and musical directed numerous musical theatre productions and choirs

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An Emmy® Award-winning writer, I am a working spoken voice-over talent currently providing live audio description for FOX Sports in Los Angeles. I am an active member of SAG-AFTRA and AGMA. Other related experience includes TV Arts & Entertainment news host and producer, NPR jazz radio station affiliate host, and Los Angeles Daily News columnist. 

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I have performed professionally with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Association, Orange County’s Opera Pacific and with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and in master classes taught by Giorgio Tozzi (Metropolitan Opera), Blanche Thebom (Metropolitan Opera) and Dorothy Warenskjold (San Francisco Opera), among other notables. I am a San Mateo County Vocal Competition prize winner. Hear my recordings of jazz standards on YouTube.

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I received my training from a number of exceptional musicians including, most notably, Natalie Limonick (formerly general director of the USC Opera Program, director of the UCLA Opera Workshop and Opera Guild of Southern California President), Esther Andreas (Metropolitan Opera), Naomi Farr (New York City Opera), Nina Hinson (San Francisco Opera), Marion Cooper, Dietrich Erbelding, Charles Ross Perlee (conductor, San Francisco Opera and Bremen Opera), and several other respected teachers and coaches.

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