Contact
Departments
Opera Studies
Education
2 yrs Graduate Studies French/Spanish Literature, New York University
BA Romance Languages & Literatures, Princeton University
Courses Taught
French Diction
Ensembles
French Language and Diction Coach, San Francisco Opera
French Language and Diction Coach, Santa Fe Opera
French Language and Diction Coach, Houston Grand Opera
Q&A
What is your hometown?
I was born in Paris, France.
What is your favorite recording?
Any recording of the Don Carlo duet with Ghiaurov as King Philip and Martti Talvela as the Grand Inquisitor, Vienna Philharmonic. Because two colossal basses....
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
Successful singing in a language that's not your own is 90% bravado!
What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?
How can I learn more about the context, the story, and the character I'm playing/singing?
What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?
I fell into it by accident and entered the career sideways through teaching language and literature.
What was a turning point in your career?
Attending my first opera at the San Francisco opera in 1977: Adriana Lecouvreur (Renata Scotto and Giaomo Aragall)
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
Presenting and producing live concerts, which I also do.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
Verdi, Puccini, and Mendelssohn
What do you think makes a concert experience unique?
Those rare moments when the artists and the audience are breathing together. It's not describable!
Please list your most important collaborations.
Commissioning a song cycle by Jake Heggie for Sasha Cooke (world premiered in 2020)
Biography
Patricia Kristof Moy was born and raised in Paris, France, and educated in Romance Languages and Literatures at Princeton University and New York University. Based in San Francisco, she has been the French Language and Diction Coach of the San Francisco Opera and a member of the Merola Opera Program faculty since the early 1980s. She has also coached productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Parallèle, Music Academy of the West, and a number of regional companies in the US. She teaches privately in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ms. Moy maintains a parallel career as an arts administrator and concert presenter, and in this capacity, has served as Assistant Company Administrator of the San Francisco Opera, Administrator of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Executive Director & Producer of the Stern Grove Midsummer Music Festival, and since 2005, Executive/Artistic Director of Music at Kohl Mansion, an international chamber concert series and music education program in San Mateo County, California.
Ms. Moy has coached French, Spanish, Hungarian, and Italian diction for singers. She loves working with young artists and is especially interested in exploring relationships between text, story, character, style, historical context and music.