Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer. He has studied with ethnomusicologist David Locke and such noted Master Drummers as Abubakari Lunna-Wumbie (Dagomba), Frisner Augustín (Haitian), Felipe Garcia Villamil, Alejandro Carvajal (AfroCuban) and I Ketut Gedé Asnawa (Balinese). Mr. Conway has traveled to Cuba to research Afro-Cuban Folklore through the Escuela National de Arté in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, and also to Bali to research traditional and modern Balinese music where he had his composition Sekar Purwa Pascima read by Kaliungu Kaja Banjar Gamelan, in Denpasar.
He holds a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, was a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble newEar and has served as president and a member of the Board of Directors of the New Music Institute of Kansas City, Inc.. He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, the Spoonbender Orchestra, Stimulus and Response Company, Grupo Aztlan, Snuff Jazz/Wee Snuff, Mark Lowrey with Drums, Terrestrial Consort, Arnold Young’s RoughTet and Necessity Brass Band, Expassionates, Brad Cox Ensemble/Owen Cox Dance Group, Ensemble Ibérica, Cubanisms, Mambo DeLeon Orquesta/Carte Blanc, the Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC and worked as performer and composer with Paul Mesner Puppets, Gorilla Theater, City in Motion, National Audio Theater Festivals, the UMKC Theater Department and Dwight Frizzell's Myth Science Ensemble. Mr. Conway currently performs with several ensembles under the auspices of the Traditional Music Society in Kansas City, , as conga player with Chris Hazelton's Boogaloo 7, bongo player with Mundo Nuovo, occasional conga player with The Freedom Affair, and plays percussion, saxophone and bassoon with BCR.
During two summers, he led Creative AfroCuban Projects as a part of the Studio150 arts-based youth job training program administered by the Arts Council of Metropolitan KC. He served as director of Gamelan Genta Kasturi, a Balinese Gamelan Semaradana community ensemble, from 2006-2019.
Projects of note include work as music director/performer on the UMKC Theater Department’s MFA production of Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth directed by Ricardo Kahn, Artistic Director of the famed Crossroads Theater and organizing the production of a large collaborative interdisciplinary work entitled Angels & Demons at Play which was premiered as part of the ArtSounds series at the Kansas City Art Institute and then presented as part of the Urban Culture Project at La Esquina in three performances. All these performances were to capacity houses.
As a latin percussionist, he has played in ensembles backing up international recording artists Larry Harlow of Fania All-Stars fame; Columbian artists Tito Murillo and Mauro Mosquera; and Neuyorican artists Maelo Ruiz and Frankie Negrón.
Mr. Conway was recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Fellow Award in 2012. As part of the celebratory event attached to this award, a new work was created in collaboration with the other recipient, Heidi Van. Voyeur: an Urban Rhapsody, a Van windowplay with original music by Conway, performed by the Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC, premiered at The Fishtank Theater in the Crossroads Art District of Kansas City, MO. Additionally, he was commissioned to write and present a new work as part of Charlotte Street's 20th Anniversary concert at The Folly Theater on 9/30/'17. The piece, entitled Samvartaka, was written for Gamelan Genta Kasturi featuring guest artist Shawn Hansen on live electronics.
Current creative project is focused on recordings of new works as Syncretica and additional recordings of past works available at my Bandcamp page.
He holds a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, was a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble newEar and has served as president and a member of the Board of Directors of the New Music Institute of Kansas City, Inc.. He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, the Spoonbender Orchestra, Stimulus and Response Company, Grupo Aztlan, Snuff Jazz/Wee Snuff, Mark Lowrey with Drums, Terrestrial Consort, Arnold Young’s RoughTet and Necessity Brass Band, Expassionates, Brad Cox Ensemble/Owen Cox Dance Group, Ensemble Ibérica, Cubanisms, Mambo DeLeon Orquesta/Carte Blanc, the Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC and worked as performer and composer with Paul Mesner Puppets, Gorilla Theater, City in Motion, National Audio Theater Festivals, the UMKC Theater Department and Dwight Frizzell's Myth Science Ensemble. Mr. Conway currently performs with several ensembles under the auspices of the Traditional Music Society in Kansas City, , as conga player with Chris Hazelton's Boogaloo 7, bongo player with Mundo Nuovo, occasional conga player with The Freedom Affair, and plays percussion, saxophone and bassoon with BCR.
During two summers, he led Creative AfroCuban Projects as a part of the Studio150 arts-based youth job training program administered by the Arts Council of Metropolitan KC. He served as director of Gamelan Genta Kasturi, a Balinese Gamelan Semaradana community ensemble, from 2006-2019.
Projects of note include work as music director/performer on the UMKC Theater Department’s MFA production of Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth directed by Ricardo Kahn, Artistic Director of the famed Crossroads Theater and organizing the production of a large collaborative interdisciplinary work entitled Angels & Demons at Play which was premiered as part of the ArtSounds series at the Kansas City Art Institute and then presented as part of the Urban Culture Project at La Esquina in three performances. All these performances were to capacity houses.
As a latin percussionist, he has played in ensembles backing up international recording artists Larry Harlow of Fania All-Stars fame; Columbian artists Tito Murillo and Mauro Mosquera; and Neuyorican artists Maelo Ruiz and Frankie Negrón.
Mr. Conway was recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Fellow Award in 2012. As part of the celebratory event attached to this award, a new work was created in collaboration with the other recipient, Heidi Van. Voyeur: an Urban Rhapsody, a Van windowplay with original music by Conway, performed by the Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC, premiered at The Fishtank Theater in the Crossroads Art District of Kansas City, MO. Additionally, he was commissioned to write and present a new work as part of Charlotte Street's 20th Anniversary concert at The Folly Theater on 9/30/'17. The piece, entitled Samvartaka, was written for Gamelan Genta Kasturi featuring guest artist Shawn Hansen on live electronics.
Current creative project is focused on recordings of new works as Syncretica and additional recordings of past works available at my Bandcamp page.