(Fuller version than published in Tech Talk 3/8/2006 | Tech Talk article)

Patricia-Maria Weinmann

Artist at Work: Staffer uses many names for multi-task life --Lynn Heinemann, Office of the Arts One of an occasional series featuring MIT staff members who are practicing artists.

A Google search for Trish Weinmann, Patricia Weinmann and Patricia-Maria Weinmann reveals a woman with several monikers and even more personae.

Weinmann is a full-time faculty member in New England Conservatory's Opera Studies Department and director of their Opera Workshop.(She directs NEC's production of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" this weekend; see details below.)

She's also a director for Utah Opera and their Young Artist Program, traveling to Salt Lake City three to four times a year to train some of the country's most talented young singers. And, in Utah, she also directs the featured opera for Utah Symphony and Opera's Deer Valley Festival in Park City.

In addition, Weinmann is Education Advisor on the Board of Directors for the Boston-based Prometheus Dance, and partner in a new consulting company for presentation and communication skills.

But part of her day is spent at MIT, where, as half-time assistant coordinator of Technology and Culture Forum (T&C), she helps organize lectures and symposia that explore the role of science and technology in promoting positive social, ecological, and economic change.

How can one women juggle so many multiple identities?

"Somehow it all gets done," Weinmann says, admitting that sleep is in short supply. Wife of classical guitarist John Muratore, and mom to Nicco (13 years old) and Paulina (14 years old), Weinmann calls her family "supportive and amazing."

"I've always been a very energetic person," says Weinmann, joking that some might actually call her manic. Practicing yoga and her own form of meditation also helps tremendously, she says.

Weinmann also finds renewal and recharging through her activities at T&C, where she started working 21 years ago while at graduate school at the Boston Conservatory. "I was always interested in global issues and politics, so it seemed like a great part-time job to get me through grad school," she says. But Weinmann enjoyed her work at MIT so much that once she got her degree in opera direction/production, she decided to stay.

"The students and faculty we work with at T&C are fantastic people and they give me hope that mankind may have a chance yet,î she says.

At T&C, Weinmann helps determine the programs though ultimate approval comes from their Steering Committee. With the help of two part-time assistants, Weinmann manages the logistics, including the website and all the finances. Most important, says Weinmann, is Reverend Amy McCreath, coordinator of T&C and MIT's Episcopal Chaplain, who Weinmann calls, "the most supportive, understanding and incredible of all human beings."

At the New England Conservatory of Music, Weinmann teaches and directs--primarily graduate students--and also teaches a performance seminar class to undergraduates. Her responsibilities at NEC include teaching an audition-techniques aria class, directing scenes for the upper three divisions of the department (Theater, Studio, and Workshop), and the direction and administration of the Workshop division.

While now connected to a world of strapless gowns and drop earrings Weinmann says that as a young girl she was a total tomboy and hated wearing dresses. "I was happy playing baseball, collecting insects and climbing trees," she says.

Though Weinmann knew the classics of musical theater through her mother's record collection, she didn't see her first opera--"The Magic Flute"--until she was 21, for an undergraduate course on Mozart. "I came to opera late," says Weinmann, "and I wasn't bowled over."

In fact, she started her career as a pianist (a bachelors in music from the University of New York at Stony Brook) and did a lot of "pit" work for shows. "I had an epiphany during a rehearsal," she recalls. " I realized that I wanted to be involved with what was happening on stage as opposed to under it."

Oceanographic Challenges

Sometimes, what's happening under Weinmann's stage isn't the pit orchestra. On two occasions, it's been the Atlantic Ocean.

In July 2000, Weinmann directed the Boston Academy of Music's production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" at the berth of USS Constitution and in July 2003, she directed Opera Boston's staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" on the U.S.S. Cassin Young, both at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

While observing that directing musical forms of theater can be complicated as there are so many variables, Weinmann recalls "H.M.S. Pinafore" as being most technically challenging, as she had to take the tides into account. "We used Old Ironsides as part of the 'stage,' she recalls, "and when the tide was at its lowest, you could barely see the ship."

Water and nauticals seem to be a recurring theme in Weinmann's various lives. When she was awarded one of MIT's Infinite Mile Awards in 2003, she was extolled as "the rudder that has kept the course [of Technology and Culture] straight ahead" through the Forum's "many changes in the format, scope and fortunes."

As for her various names, Weinmann says they don't really reflect different aspects of her life and personality. "Patricia is great," she says, "but most people don't want to say the whole thing. Trish is easier."

And, she laughs, "Patricia-Maria was mostly for my mother to call me when I was in trouble."

"Cosi fan tutte," New England Conservatory's salute to Mozart's 250th birthday, will be staged on Saturday, March 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 12 at 3 p.m. at the Cutler Majestic Theater (219 Tremont Street, Boston). Tickets cost $15 plus fees. For more information, see http://www.maj.org/P2006/nec_cosi.html.