RUSSELL PATTERSON, Artistic Director, is Conductor Laureate of Lyric Opera of Kansas City (which he founded and was General Artistic Director of for 40 years before recently moving to his home on Cape Cod). Maestro Patterson also organized the Kansas City Symphony where he served as its Artistic Director, and has been appointed Conductor Emeritus. Maestro Patterson has appeared as guest conductor in concerts and opera engagements in Mexico City, London, New York, Seattle, Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Europe. Patterson served on the advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, as a consultant to the Ford Foundation and the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, and on the Board of Directors of Opera America.