His performances have been acclaimed by New York audiences, critics, and an international roster of composers whose orchestral and choral works he has conducted. Active in premiering new music, he has won the praise of such notable composers as William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Lou Harrison, Jennifer Higdon, and Tarik O’Regan. 

In his years with RCS, he conducted not only in many of the city’s revered and beautiful houses of worship, but also in some of its most prestigious venues: at Carnegie Hall (the New York premiere of André J. Thomas’s Mass: A Celebration of Love and Joy, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, and Beethoven’s Mass in C Major) and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (the New York premiere of Scott Ordway’s The End of Rain, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis).

Unsurprisingly, his wide-ranging and varied career has taken him abroad, where he lectured and presented masterclasses in the Netherlands, Italy, and Taiwan. He also contributed his critical expertise as a member of the grants panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. The festival of Lou Harrison’s music that he curated at Trinity Wall Street – conducting Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan and La Koro Sutro – was named by The New York Times in the list of Best Classical Performances of 2017. Dr. Gardner has recorded for Naxos, Albany, Ethereal, and Folkways records.

On December 12, 2024, before a full house at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Maestro Patrick Gardner conducted his farewell concert for RCS in a triumphant program comprised of three choral masterworks. It was the culmination of an extraordinary tenure. To say there was a genuine love and creative synergy between Dr. Gardner and the Riverside Choral Society would be no exaggeration.