Patricia Pates Eaton

Patricia Pates Eaton, a native of Chicago, Illinois, Retired Co-Founder of the Brooklyn Ecumenical Chorus of Bedford Stuyvesant, Retired Principal Conductor of the All City High School Chorus, Retired teacher and coordinator of vocal music at Wadleigh Secondary School for the Arts and Martin Van Buren High School and former conductor of the Girls Choir of Harlem. 1960 she received her Bachelor of Music from Chicago Musical College in Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois and later received her Master of Arts from Teachers College, Columbia University. Mrs. Eaton sang with the Metropolitan Opera Association, the New York Philharmonic, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, American Opera Society, the Opera Orchestra of New York; Rome Opera, Theatre de
Westerns in Berlin, toured with the Robert de Cormier Singers and the Howard Roberts Chorale. She has conducted award winning choirs in Chicago and New York City that participated in concerts, television broadcasts and recordings. Mrs. Eaton has been Minister of Music at several New York City churches including Church of the Master, Bethany Baptist Church (Brooklyn) and Bridge Street AWME Church. The choirs that she conducted were featured on two different radio stations simultaneously.

Mrs. Eaton moved to New York City to work at the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students where she created the Mississippi Project, traveling throughout that state during the 1960‘s interviewing and 0counselling students who would attend colleges and universities in northern states where they would receive 0financial aid and a quality education. Later she became the Associate Director of the Cooperative Program for Educational Opportunity at Yale University whose mission was to integrate the Ivy League and Seven Sisters Colleges. Patricia also traveled throughout the south to coordinate the scholarship awards for the Congress of Racial Equality. Later, as a New York City educator, Mrs. Eaton collaborated on the Curriculum Frameworks Arts and Humanities Committee and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. She was also the Registrar at the Harlem School of the Arts assisting the founder, Dorothy Maynor, with everything that was critical to the running of the school.

The Eaton family moved to the Mount Morris Historic District in 1980 and immediately began to collaborate with neighbors to advocate for the improvement of the district. This organization became the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association. Mrs. Eaton was president of the organization for fifteen years. Under her leadership the organization actively lobbied for the rebuilding of the “ruins” , a city block of damaged property that became middle income condominiums, the revitalization of Marcus Garvey Park, the renovation of the Harlem Library, contributed funds and materials to PS 144 (now PS 242), sponsored concerts and informational community meetings. Currently she sponsors a neighborhood concert series “Three on 3 Music” which brings live music to the Mount Morris Community and to Central Harlem.

Patricia Pates Eaton has been the recipient of awards from the Mayor of the City of New York, the City Council of the City of New York, the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, the Music Educators Association of New York City, the Phyllis Hyman Phat Friend Award from the All Stars Project, North Manhattan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Bridge Street AWME Church, the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association, and was nominated Long Island University “Teacher of the Year”

Mrs. Eaton is an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association, the American Choral Directors Association, The National Association of Negro Musicians, the American Guild of Musical Artists, a Diamond Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the NAACP and the proud mother of Patrice.