Hello, I am Thomas Patteson, a teacher, writer, curator, and musician who lives in Philadelphia. All my work and play revolves around the belief that making music connects to most basic dimensions of being human, and that all of us have the ability to have deep and meaningful musical experiences. 

As a teacher, I help students see how music history and music theory connect to music reality. From 2013 to 2023, I taught in the Musical Studies department at the Curtis Institute of Music, where I developed a new curriculum for first-year students.  I'm excited to further refine my approach to experiential education in a course a course called "Music and the Exploration of Consciousness" which I'll be teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 2025.

As a writer, I explore traditions of music that expand our ideas of what music is and what its powers are. These ideas are explored in my book Instruments for New Music and the website Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments, as well as in my ongoing work on the history of improvisation in European music. Online writing projects include the blogs Possible Music (2023-) and Acousmata (2009-2013). 

As a curator, I work to create spaces for the unique encounters that musical creativity makes possible. In 2023, I co-founded People's Music Supply, an artist-led platform for creative improvised music and community-building. Over the years, I've worked with Philadelphia-based presenting organizations  such as <fidget> and Bowerbird, where I helped launch the Arcana New Music Ensemble in 2016.