About Us

"Rock Orchestra Kansas City (ROKC) believes in the power of music to connect, inspire, and provide a safe and fun environment for collaboration and creativity, focused on engaging communities across all ages, backgrounds and influences. ROKC is committed to producing concert experiences that entertain, educate, and actively build community, by reimagining the performance and study of traditionally non-orchestral music performed by an orchestra as a versatile and genre-bending art form."

Seth May-Patterson, viola, violin, is a sought-after performer, teacher, composer, and arranger who is as comfortable performing for sold-out arenas as he is teaching in the classroom. Seth has collaborated and performed with artists such as Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age), ODESZA, Mary Lambert, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Leon Bridges, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Duff McKagan (Guns and Roses), Judy Collins, Allen Stone, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and many others. Notably, he appeared with Mary Lambert on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and completed a national tour with David Bazan in 2014, as well as performed with Macklemore featuring Leon Bridges at the American Music Awards in 2015. 

During his time in Seattle, Seth was in demand as a session musician and completed recording projects that range from independent sessions to full-length albums and major motion pictures. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Cornish College of the Arts where he studied with Mara Gearman (previous Assistant Principal Viola of Seattle Symphony), and in 2011 completed an intensive fellowship with grandmaster violist Emanuel Vardi. Prior to relocating to Kansas City, Seth sat Principal Viola in the Seattle Rock Orchestra, was the Violist and a founding member of Andrew Joslyn and the Passenger String Quartet, Assistant Principal Viola in the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, was a section member of Symphony Tacoma, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, and Federal Way Symphony, as well as subbed for the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Auburn Symphony Orchestra, and Oregon Symphony. Seth also performed with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players for their Mikado tour, the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, and was thrilled to be asked to perform in China as Principal Viola with the Hollywood Concert Orchestra. 

Seth currently subs with the Kansas City Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, sits Principal Viola for the Lee’s Summit Symphony, and gigs in the KC music scene, as well as composes and writes arrangements for The Rumba Kings, a Seattle-based Greek/Latin fusion band, and the Arcobaleno String Quartet. Seth is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Rock Orchestra Kansas City (ROKC), a non-profit professional rock orchestra uniting the freelance music community of the greater Kansas City region.

  ROKC operates under the Lee's Summit Symphony Orchestra 501(c)(3) umbrella. LSSO's generous support makes it possible for ROKC to produce future performances and strengthen the freelance live-music economy and its members. 

The Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) was founded in 2003 by Russell E. Berlin, Jr. and Phyllis Hamilton. Each year, thousands of patrons enjoy live, symphonic concerts at the John Knox Pavilion. The Symphony provides affordable and accessible high-quality music to a wide population while helping to attract civic-minded workers and residents to the community and supporting local arts education. More than 200 talented musicians, volunteers, and board members share their passion for music and give hundreds of hours of their time to create a high-quality Symphony for our community each season. As such, the LSSO is recognized as one of the finest community symphonies in the region. Click here to learn more!