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Merlin Patterson was born in Galena Park, Texas, in 1955 and received his early musical training in the Galena Park public schools. His junior high director, Eddie Cathey, instilled in him a love of great music and made him into a bona fide “band nerd.” At Galena Park High School, his director was TBA Past President Arnold Baca who not only continued to foster his love of music but also provided Patterson with a strong foundation in music theory. It was at this time that he wrote his first arrangements, initially for the marching band, then a “stage band” that he organized with several of his band mates. He also achieved membership in the Texas All-State Symphonic Band. Patterson continued his formal musical training at Sam Houston State University where his principal teachers were Fisher Tull, Newton Strandberg, James Marks, Harry Mallard, B.R. Henson, Carol Smith, Henry Howey, and most influentially, SHSU Director of Bands, Hall of Fame member and 1976 Texas Bandmaster of the Year Dr. Ralph Mills. Dr. Mills would become a role model and father figure for Patterson and a shining example of the music educator he would aspire to become.

Upon graduating from SHSU with a BME (1979) and a MA (1981), Patterson began his teaching career in Spring Branch ISD, which at the time was a hotbed of band knowledge led by Director of Instrumental Music Jack Greenberg and including Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame members Mike Brashear, Tye Ann Payne, Rick and Jill Yancey, Robert and Nancy Caston, as well as Noe Marmolejo, Denis Kidwell, Chuck Kingsley, and Matthew McInturff. He served as Assistant Director to Rick Yancey during his Spring Branch years, first at Westchester Junior High, then at Westchester High School and Stratford High School. It was at this time that Patterson first met and became associated with the great Eddie Green of The University of Houston. Not only did Mr. Green become a great teacher, mentor, and friend to Patterson but also commissioned many of his early transcriptions for band (more on that later). In the fall of 1991, Patterson became Associate Director at Klein High School where he had the
good fortune to work with Hall of Fame member Randy Vaughan, as well as Todd Clearwater and David Gresens, all three of whom were master teachers. His tenure at Klein is notable for the Symphonic (2nd) Band’s performances of major Grade V literature, which at the time was not at all commonplace. Under his direction, the band performed Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Nixon’s Fiesta Del Pacifico, Tull’s Sketches on a Tudor Psalm, Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana, Persichetti’s Symphony for Band, and Creston’s Celebration Overture, among others. He moved to Bleyl Middle School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in the fall of 2000, first as assistant then in 2002, as head director.

His bands in all three districts received numerous awards, including twenty-two U.I.L. Sweepstakes as well as several individual first divisions in U.I.L. Concert and Sightreading, first division ratings at the Buccaneer Music Festival, and were named "Outstanding Band" or “Runner Up” at the South Coast Music Festival on six separate occasions. In April 1998, the Klein Symphonic Band under his baton was honored with a performance at the National Wind Band Festival in New York's Carnegie Hall. His band at Bleyl Middle School was twice named a state finalist in TMEA Honor Band competition, placing in the top ten both times. He is forever grateful to Tammy Patterson Seale for her love and support during his teaching career and he has benefited from the friendship and guidance of Robert Blanton, Keith Markuson, Larry Matysiak, Priscilla and Tom Bell, Susan Scarborough, Tom Bennett, Carroll Cantrell, Jim Shaw, Kyle Coleman, Chris Rugila, Mike Keig, Susan Housen, Jason and Melissa Hargrave, John Benzer, and David Bertman.

Of equal importance are his activities as a composer and arranger. Patterson’s compositional catalogue includes works for band, orchestra, solo instruments, and a wide variety of chamber ensembles, but he is best known for his transcriptions for wind ensemble of major orchestral works, which now number in the fifties. Acclaimed as “one of the finest transcribers of all time” (James Keene, The University of Illinois-retired) and “without peer as a band arranger” (Eddie Green, The University of Houston-retired), the wind transcriptions of
Merlin Patterson have set new standards in attaining “the highest possible current degree of attention to color and imagination” (Jerry Junkin, The University of Texas and Dallas Winds). Among his transcriptions are Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and The Firebird Suite (1919), Debussy's The Engulfed Cathedral, Janacek's Sinfonietta, Holst's The Planets (complete), Wagner's Procession to the Cathedral, Elgar's Enigma Variations (complete), Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Respighi’s Feste Romane, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances and the First Symphony of Samuel Barber. His wind transcription of Javelin by American composer Michael Torke was lauded by the composer as "Brilliant! I didn't realize that a band transcription could come out so well." Mr. Patterson has specialized in the works of Aaron Copland, having written band transcriptions of Appalachian Spring, Letter from Home, and Down a Country Lane, the latter receiving praise from the composer as "a careful, sensitive, and most satisfying extension of the mood and content of the original." Over thirty of his transcriptions have been placed on the U.I.L. Prescribed Music List.

His works have received critical acclaim in numerous music journals including The Instrumentalist, Fanfare, Bandworld, and The American Record Guide which stated, “Patterson does with Debussy’s The Engulfed Cathedral what Ravel did with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition…Debussy’s piano piece is magical, and so is Patterson’s setting for band.” His transcriptions have been performed by leading professional organizations including all five D.C. service bands, the United States Coast Guard Band, and the Dallas Winds, as well as by major university and professional ensembles throughout the world and have been featured at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention and the Midwest Clinic on numerous occasions. Recordings of his transcriptions are available on the Mark, DBP Audio, Albany, Naxos, Altissimo, Metier and GIA record labels. His works are published by TRN, Manhattan Beach Music, GIA, and Boosey & Hawkes. Most of Patterson’s transcriptions are available online through Merlin Patterson Music. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Beta Mu, has been listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers on five separate occasions and has presented clinics at the conventions of the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, and the North Carolina Music Educators Association. None of his success would have been possible were it not for the love, encouragement, and undying support of his beautiful wife Susan Meyer Patterson, herself a highly accomplished band director. Since his retirement from teaching in 2009, he has maintained a busy schedule as clinician, adjudicator, guest conductor, and of course, band arranger.