Interested in studying strings at Cal State LA? Email Dr. Kilroy to inquire about a sample lesson.
Office Hours this semester are Mondays 2pm, Tuesdays 1pm, in person or on Zoom. Also available by appointment. Email for the Zoom link!
Teaching
- MUS 1500 - Music in World Cultures
- MUS 3121 - String Methods
- MUS 3219 - Orchestra
- MUS 4740 - History and Literature of Chamber Music
- MUS 4859 - Chamber Music
- MUS 5000 - Research Techniques in Music
- MUS 5680 - Performance Seminar
- Applied Violin and Viola (several course listings)
Research Interests
- Electroacoustic Music Performance Practice
- Posthumanism in Music
- Music of Filipino and Fil-Am Composers and Performers
- Violin and Viola Performance Practice
- String Pedagogy - Violin/Viola, Eclectic Styles, and Pedagogical Approaches to Technology
Biography
Violinist, pedagogue, and recording artist Patti Kilroy is a uniquely modern-minded musician, most known for giving the world-premiere to over 100 musical works. She has shared the stage with artists including Björk, Deep Purple, Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, John Cale from the Velvet Underground, and Afro-Peruvian singer Eva Ayllón. Praised for her “intensely focused” playing by The New York Times, she uses both her extensive performance résumé and experience with new music as tools in her work as an Assistant Professor at California State University, Los Angeles.
In premiering such an extensive oeuvre of music, Dr. Kilroy possesses a rare command of extended techniques and modern performance practices, in particular with looping, live processing electronics, and prepared violin. Beginning with Lars Graugaard in 2010 (“Sparks and Feathers”), she has collaborated with composers across the country, including Julia Wolfe and John Luther Adams. In particular, Kilroy’s career in new music seeks to help correct the racial and gender imbalance in classical and new music spaces, and she thus seeks work with composers that are female, nonbinary, trans, and of color.
She not only performs contemporary music as soloist, but also from within a wide-ranging list of music groups, including contemporary ensembles Alarm Will Sound, Wavefield Ensemble, and Hotel Elefant. Other genres help round out her musical expertise, as she appears in groups such as the avant-rock Burning City Orchestra, metal string quartet seven)suns, disco band Escort, and the indie band OWEL.
Dr. Kilroy can be heard on over a dozen studio albums dating back to 2011, including Björk’s Vulnicura Live, the Original Motion Picture Score to Cam, and Yoko Ono’s Warzone. A globally traveled artist, her career has taken her to Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, Muziekgebouw a’ant Ij in Amsterdam, the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, and a number of New York City’s most prominent music venues.
This broad experience as a performer is incorporated into Dr. Kilroy’s work as an educator and scholar. Prior to her aforementioned Assistant Professor position at Cal State LA, she taught violin and chamber music at Western Connecticut State University and New York University, and served as a violin teacher and lecturer at New York’s Hunter College. In her work as an educator, she strives to develop inclusive curricula that honor each student's unique experiences and interests, in both one-on-one and classroom settings.
Originally from the Miami area, Patti Kilroy is currently based in Los Angeles, California. She is a recipient of the Ph.D. in Violin Performance at NYU Steinhardt, where she studied violin with Naoko Tanaka and wrote her dissertation with the help of her advisor, pianist Marilyn Nonken. Kilroy has given numerous presentations across the United States on her research, speaking on topics ranging from jobs in academia to phasing and looping to performing with pre-recorded media. Her dissertation research focuses on developing terminology and frameworks to describe new performance practices in music with live processing electronics. To learn more, visit pattikilroy.com.
