Patrick Michael O’Shea is an American conductor, composer, and university educator.

He joined the faculty of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in 1997, and serves as Professor and Director of Choirs in the Department of Music. He teaches voice, as well as classes in vocal pedagogy, vocal literature, and music history, and directs the auditioned 60-voice Concert Choir and the select Chamber Singers. Since 2010, he has served as the Manager of the Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale, working under iconic American choral director Dale Warland.

Prior to his appointment at Saint Mary’s, Dr. O’Shea was visiting assistant professor of choral music education at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

He holds the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from Arizona State University, the Master of Music degree in Choral Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, in Vocal Performance from the Conservatory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., where he began his conducting studies with Grammy Award-winning conductor Robert Shafer. He continued conducting study with Don V. Moses and Donald Bailey. His composition teachers have included the late Russell Woollen, as well as Thomas Fredrickson and Randall Shinn. Dr. O’Shea is a member of American Composers Forum, the American Choral Directors Association, the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. His biography appears in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.

O'Patrick M. O'Shea's composes predominantly choral and solo vocal music, but has also written chamber music for various instruments and small ensembles. Significant works includ his Te Deum (1997), The Nativity (cantata, 2004), Sei Nacht zu mir (choral cycle, 2005), The Dispossessed (song cycle for baritone, cello, flute, and uillean pipes, 2010), and Songs from Inner Landscapes (song cycle for baritone and piano on poems by Michael Fitzgerald, 2015).

Examples of O'Shea's music (scores and embedded SoundCloud audio) may be found on his page at Swirly Music (see links below).

Dr. O'Shea enjoys genealogical research and has served on the Board of Governors of The American College of Heraldry for many years, having written articles on genealogical, historical, and heraldic subjects. His personal arms were registered (for his great grandfather, Michael Joseph O'Shea) with the College in 1993, and later confirmed by a Grant of Foreign arms by the Kenyan College of Arms in 2010. He is a Past President of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry (The Thousand), and a member of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, Sons of the Revolution, and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He has received honors from the formerly ruling houses of Braganza (Portugal), Ethiopia, and King Kigeli V of Rwanda, in addition to being a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (Vatican).

He and his wife, soprano and music educator Lindsy O'Shea, are the parents of four daughters and one son.