Howard Jay Patterson is a musician, composer, author, actor, juggler, bandleader, and environmentalist, best known as a founding member of The Flying Karamazov Brothers. The troupe helped launch the "New Vaudeville" movement, blending comedy, juggling, theatre, music, dance, and social commentary in performances worldwide, including Broadway and London's West End, major international festivals, extensive North American and global tours, and collaborations with leading orchestras including the National Symphony, Boston Pops, and the Cincinnati Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Their work earned an Obie Award, an Emmy, and nominations for Olivier and Ovation awards, along with hundreds of television appearances, including The Tonight Show and Seinfeld. The Karamazovs collaborated with artists such as Robin Williams, Dolly Parton, Bobby McFerrin, and The Grateful Dead, and set attendance records with their version of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, which represented the US in Classic Theatre at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Theater Festival, and which became PBS' first Live from Lincoln Center broadcast that was neither classical music nor dance. Their theatrical works include L'Histoire du Soldat, The Flying Karamazov Brothers in The Brothers Karamazov, Room Service, The Three Moscowteers, Club Sandwich, and L'Universe, a collaboration with MIT. They also appeared in the major motion picture The Jewel of the Nile,  in which Mr. Patterson was an uncredited fight choreographer and wherein they did most of their own stunts.

 

Howard has worked extensively as an environmental educator and field ecologist. He holds a Bachelors in the Art of Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a Masters in Environmental Management from Portland State University, specializing in macroinvertebrate analysis of fresh water quality, and was trained by the Hon. Al Gore to present live versions of An Inconvenient Truth – including his record-breaking eight-minute lightning version he presented in variety shows. He has worked with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, and currently co-manages the Boise Eliot Native Grove habitat restoration pollinator pocket park project. He lives with his complicated family in Portland, Oregon, on land of the Chinook and Multnomah peoples, where he is blissfully enjoying extensive time with his delightful grandsons.