Patrick Reardon

from Miss Porter's School Bulletin Spring 2024

Championingthe environment

Walk by the Music Building at 5 Mountain Rd., and you might hear Gregorian chants one day and a performance of Taylor Swift tunes the next. For Music Director Patrick Reardon, engaging students in exploring old and new music helps illuminate its unifying effect.

“One thing I love so much about participating in music is that it’s a shared experience throughout time,” says Reardon, a seven-year Miss Porter’s School educator who lives on campus with his wife, three sons and two dogs. “It connects you to the past, and it connects you to the present and to those around you.”

The historical building brings its own distinct energy to the music-making mix. Built in 1885, it features Richardsonian Romanesque architecture and a large wood-burning fireplace on each of the two floors, which Reardon describes as “warm, cozy and inviting” the same vibe he says he strives to create for the music program.

Together with his students, Reardon brings the space to life in diverse ways from the classes he teaches in music theory, songwriting and composition to his conducting of the MPS Chorus and the Sarah Porter Singers vocal ensemble to his advising of the senior a capella group, the Perhilettes. #WeWantPerhilettes! He also oversees the department’s 12 teachers and conductors and directs the annual musical, which this year was Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

The rhythm of Reardon’s musical life is all over the scale. He previously taught at public and independent schools in Illinois, performed in a male a capella group and an internationally competitive barbershop quartet, and completed a choral residency at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He also was a tenor in the Chicago Symphony Chorus, which earned him a Grammy Award for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s choral-orchestral masterpiece, “Messa da Requiem.” He plays the saxophone and piano and sings in Porter’s faculty rock band, No Evidence, which performs rock music from the 1970s to the 2000s.

In describing his teaching style, Reardon calls himself a “shepherd” who guides his students to discover and ignite their passions. “They are so willing to take on a challenge that interests them,” he says. And often “they just knock it out of the park.”