Heather Paterson studied music at SMU where she received a degree in opera, vocal performance, and music pedagogy. She subsequently taught voice in the Dallas area and sang with several jazz and pop groups. After several years of teaching and performing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, she returned to college to study nursing, earning two associate degrees, one bachelor’s, and her master’s in science and nursing.
Heather has had a long career (more than 25 years) as a pediatric nurse at Children's Medical Center Dallas, and is currently a Masters' prepared Nurse Practitioner in the Pediatric Palliative Care Department at Children's. She is one of only 69 nurses in the USA certified in pediatric hospice and palliative care (CHPPN).
She returned to the music scene in the 1980s after a 10 year absence and, along with her husband, saxophonist Walter Pearson and pianist Jody Binford, founded The Straight Ahead® Jazz Quintet (aka Straight Ahead®). With the band she performs at corporate events, private parties and area restaurant/clubs. The band’s name says it all about its favorite jazz form. The group has played at the WinStar Casino and at jazz festivals in Corpus Christi and Lake Texoma, the Dallas Jazz Society's Salute to Duke Ellington, The Denton Arts and Jazz Fest, Fort Worth’s Main Street Art Fest and the Taste of Dallas in The West End.
Heather freelances with other jazz groups and big bands, too, including The Celebration Orchestra, Swing Time, and Pecos River Brass. Her inspirations are the famed practitioners of the Great American Song Book, most particularly the late Ella Fitzgerald. She also counts Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, Carmen McCrae, and Keith Jarrett (not his singing!) as influential.
She has performed with many local favorites, including Neil Slater, her most significant musical mentor, Dave Zoller, Jeffry Eckels, and Brian Piper along with conducting vocal forums for the vocal division of the Department of Jazz Studies at UNT. Heather has been the featured performer many times at Sammons Jazz, performed in the inaugural season of Sammons Cabaret, and was the 2011 recipient of the Sammons Jazz Artist of the Year award.
