Greer Allegra Patterson,
AKA Madame Allegra
Educational consultant
Bilingual educator
Classical singer
Greer was raised by classical musicians who gave her a musical middle name: Allegra, the feminine form of the Italian marking meaning “bright and cheerful.” She started her own artistic life early on: singing, creating little worlds around her, and going to see her father, a bassoonist, play in the dress rehearsals of local operas, ballets, and orchestras. In their old house on the water, the whole family would put on chamber-music concerts every December. She began her own musical training on the piano, then the cello, and later focused on classical singing.
After studying in New York and Paris, Greer helped to launch the first French/English dual-language program in New York City in a Brooklyn public school. For 15 years, she collaborated with fellow teachers, administrators, parents, and key stakeholders in the community and beyond to support the development of the program. Greer taught hundreds of students, all with different needs, of different language backgrounds, and with different personalities. She drew on her creativity and her experiences as a performer to engage all of her “kids” in playful, authentic ways. She also developed an extremely successful method of introducing classical music to children through storytelling and attentive listening.
Now Greer is starting a new chapter in the Bay Area of California, where her dear niece and darling nephew live. She is ready to work with local kids, families, teachers, and community members, as well as others remotely across the United States and around the world, to develop more successful bilingual programs in schools, to support young learners to find the play in the hard work of learning, to help multilingual families of all languages and backgrounds to flourish, and to get more kids excited about opera.
When not in the role of Madame Allegra, you will likely find her running into the waves at the beach, stepping onto her yoga mat, writing in her journal, reading a good book, stretching her voice out at the piano, or on the floor playing with kids or dogs.