Monica LaSalle, Gilpin County. Going over to Central City, the history of the city is evident everywhere you look. As I drive up Spring Street, I tend to drive distractedly because there is so much to look at. I see a cute little home tucked off the roadway that has somewhat of a magical air to it, steeped in history as if it had been around the block more than once. 

I pull in the driveway behind a septic repair truck to see Patrice LeBlanc discussing the ancient plumbing that has plagued her and her husband, Ed Schoenradt since they moved into their home a year ago. With a sigh, she tells me this is the fifth time she has had to call a repair service to come. She shows me inside where I see the high ceilings and unique wood framing, characteristic of old Victorian homes that I love so well. 

Despite these struggles with plumbing, Patrice loves her home in Central City, as it is a childhood dream come true to live in the mountains after growing up in Denver. A third generation native, Patrice grew up visiting the mountains, camping and making day trips every summer, so after looking all over the mountain regions of Colorado with her husband, they settled on their home in Central City. She tells me she felt very drawn to the charm and history of the 120-year-old house that at one time was known to be a brothel and still has the original outhouse in the back yard. 

Patrice and her husband are very invested in preserving history; in fact, they both became active with the Central City Historical Society (he sits on the board), the Central City Main Street Board, Historic Preservation Commission and the Board of Peak to Peak Players within a year of moving here. Patrice now covers stories and events on the history of the Peak to Peak region for The Mountain-Ear newspaper as well. 

History is not her only passion, nor the only reason Patrice relocated to the mountains. For almost 30 years, Patrice has been singing, playing piano and writing music. A playwright for years, she says once she started doing musicals, she had found what makes her happy in life. She got her MA degree in Musical Theatre and a Certificate in Music Composition from Regis University and a BFA in Musical Theatre from Loretto Heights College and wrote a musical, How to Write a Musical, as capstone for her Masters. She tells me she has always been a performer and performed The Wizard of Oz playing Judy Garland’s roll of Dorothy over and over again throughout her childhood. By the time she got to high school, she was actively playing nine instruments proficiently. 

While she has done all types of performing and music, Patrice tells me she has developed a reputation as a jazz musician and either performs solo or with a band. She performed a few years ago at the Denver Five Points Jazz Festival and has run a Broadway singalong for five years, doing a theater cabaret show.

She has been regaled for her highly entertaining and engaging performances at weddings and events. She has even done the coffee house folk music scene. Most recently, Patrice has performed in the Teller House, at JKQ BBQ, the Pioneer Inn, Very Nice Brewery and Salto. Basically, she enjoys performing anywhere, and will do so whenever the whim strikes her. 

She describes a trip she and her husband made to Paris, of which she describes as a very casual country, where she walked into a café called Le Shat Noir and performed impromptu. There was a guy playing guitar and she asked if she could sing with him. Despite the language barrier, they established that they both knew The Rose (a classic pop song written by Amanda McBroom and made famous by Bette Midler, who recorded it for the soundtrack of the 1979 film The Rose) so they performed it together to a delighted crowd. She has been known to do this type of spontaneous performing all over the world actually, having visited London, Amsterdam, and Cuba. 

Last summer, she sat down to a piano at Charlie’s in Central City and played spontaneously. Afterward, she talked to them about doing an open stage and they loved the idea so much she performed there all summer. Now she is doing rehearsals there for this summer’s performance of Shrek. 

“You never know what’s going to happen when you sit down and start playing at places,” says Patrice. Moving to the mountains enabled Patrice to find the space she has needed to spark all this talent to be creative. She and her husband met online and from their first date started writing musicals and creating together. They finished writing the musical Prohibition four years ago and would like to produce it sometime later this year. 

They work as a team, with her writing the music and him writing the lyrics. Last year, they collaborated on and performed Call Me Ned, a play based on the history and characters behind the Frozen Dead Guy Festival. 

She feels very fortunate to be living here and says she kind of moved here on faith and it has been working out so beautifully, having met so many amazing people. She believes we all have our own path, which is to find our bliss and follow it. Life is not about how much money you make, but how can we serve. We serve through doing what makes us blissful; that’s our purpose. Patrice has been blessed with always knowing her bliss but with three kids as a single mom in the past and society being the way it is, she says that she has often been in contrast with that. She says to live as an artist you really have to step out there and have faith that this is what you should be doing. Words, I am finding, to live by.

(Originally published in the May 23, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)