John Glenn Paton arranger

Paton received his bachelor of music in voice from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1955. He studied voice with Sonia Essin (student of Anne-Marie Schoen-René), piano with Melba Smith, and organ with Parvin Titus (student of André Marchal).

Paton spent the summer of 1955 at the Tanglewood Festival singing as a tenor chorus leader in performances under Leonard Bernstein, Charles Munch, and Hugh Ross.

After two years in the U.S. Navy, he studied at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester (NY) with Julius Huehn (another student of Schoen-René). He received the Master of Music in Music Literature with an applied voice emphasis in 1959. His master’s essay was a study and performance edition for Psalm 39 by Benedetto Marcello, an excellent preparation for his later career as an editor of Italian Baroque vocal music.

Paton remained at the Eastman School one more year to earn the Performer’s Certificate. He sang a newly composed work, “Fern Hill” by Richard Lane, with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Howard Hanson.

On a Fulbright scholarship, Paton studied German lieder in Stuttgart, Germany. With his mentor, Prof. Hermann Reutter, at the piano, Paton sang recitals and recorded for Südwestfunk (Southwest German Radio). He also recorded contemporary American songs for broadcast by Studio Basel (Switzerland).

From Germany, Paton went directly to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he taught from 1961-1968. During those years he made seven annual recital tours, performing lieder of Romantic and contemporary composers, including Prof. Reutter. He sang tenor leads in the first productions of the UW Opera, Dido and Aeneas and Cosí fan tutte and in the first production of the Madison Opera, La Bohème. A highlight in Madison was a full recital of Schubert lieder with Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda at the piano.

In 1965 Paton returned to the Tanglewood Festival as a soloist. His performance of Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes is available from the Tanglewood archives. He sang in several concerts conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, including Wagner’s Lohengrin, which was subsequently recorded with the Boston Symphony in Boston.

In 1968 Paton began to teach at the University of Colorado at Boulder.