Niemi, Patricia

Acting Principal Percussion

Patti Niemi has been a member of the percussion section of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1992. She has made sound and video recordings with San Francisco Opera including Turandot, The Merry Widow, the contemporary operas Harvey Milk and Dead Man Walking, and the Opera's first orchestral recording entitled Symphony at the Opera. She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1987 then spent four years in the New World Symphony under Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and was included in the orchestra's recording, Tangazo.

Niemi has also recorded works on Howard Hersh's CDs, Dancing at the Pink House and Angels and Watermarks, and the CD, Passion Wheels with the Concordia Orchestra.

Also a writer, Niemi's memoir, Sticking It Out-From Juilliard to the Orchestra Pit, was published by ECW Press in 2016 and won an Independent Publisher Book Award in 2017. She has also been published in the New York Times and BioStories magazine.