Patti Niemi has been a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra for the past 33 years. She has made sound and video recordings with San Francisco Opera, including Turandot, The Merry Widow, the contemporary operas Harvey Milk and Dead Man Walking, and the Opera's first orchestral recording entitled Symphony at the Opera. She graduated from The Juilliard School in 1987 then spent four years in the New World Symphony under Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and was included in the orchestra’s recording, Tangazo.
Niemi has also recorded works on Howard Hersh’s CDs, Dancing at the Pink House and Angels and Watermarks, and the CD, Passion Wheels, with the Concordia Orchestra
Also a writer, Niemi’s memoir, Sticking It Out-From Juilliard to the Orchestra Pit, was published by ECW Press in 2016 and won an Independent Publisher Book Award in 2017. She has also been published in The New York Times and BioStories magazine. Ms. Niemi has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the podcasts Inflection Point Radio and The Bookshop. She was presented in a feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle, and received reviews for her memoir in Publisher’s Weekly, the Phildelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News.