Patricia Hills, a music teacher at Windermere Boulevard Elementary School, has been named the 2021-2022 Buffalo State General Music Educator of the Year. The award is given by the music faculty at Buffalo State College to recognize outstanding music educators in the Western New York area. Patricia will be honored at the Buffalo State Wind Ensemble and Choral concert on Tuesday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall.

She has taught music for 32 years, with 21 of them at Windermere Boulevard Elementary School. As the PK–grade 5 general music teacher, intermediate chorus director and co-director of the Musical Theater Club, she has taught hundreds of students at all grade levels and co-directed more than a dozen musicals over the years at Windermere Boulevard.

She has a bachelor’s degree in music education-voice from Houghton College and a master’s degree in music education from SUNY Fredonia. She has completed three levels of the Orff-Schulwerk Music Approach at the Eastman School of Music and is the membership chairperson for the Western New York Orff-Schulwerk Association. She has been an occasional presenter for this group and is drawn to this method for its aspect of using imaginative play to teach music concepts and skills.

Patricia is a founding member of Greater Buffalo Friends of Music, an organization that promotes and sponsors extracurricular music education opportunities and musical performances throughout Western New York. She is a co-chair for the annual ECMEA Classroom Music Showcase, which features music teachers presenting lessons with their students to advocate for and inform the community about vocal music education. She has offered her classroom space to many student-teachers over the past 20 years and loves collaborating with students and colleagues. As a performer, she sings with three professional choirs: the Vocalis Chamber Choir, the St. Joseph Cathedral Choir, and the Women’s Choir of Buffalo. She and her husband, Robert Patterson, reside in Buffalo.