Jon Kimura Parker

Last updated
Jon Kimura Parker
OC
Born (1959-12-25) December 25, 1959 (age 65)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres Classical
OccupationPianist
InstrumentPiano
Labels Telarc, CBC
Website jonkimuraparker.com

Jon Kimura Parker OC (born 25 December 1959) is a Canadian pianist. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Jon Kimura Parker was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the son of Keiko Parker and John Parker. He began his studies with his uncle, Edward Parker, at the age of 4. [2]

He appeared with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra when he was five. He studied with Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and The University of British Columbia, Robin Wood at the Victoria Conservatory, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at the Juilliard School. He received an Honorary degree from The University of British Columbia in 2017.

Career

Parker is the recipient of many international awards, and has won famous international competitions, including the prestigious Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 1984 at the age of 24. [3] Parker received the National Arts Centre Award in 1996, a companion award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. [4]

Parker has appeared as soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Bergen Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Scottish National Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as every major Canadian orchestra. As guest soloist, Parker has toured the Pacific Rim with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Japan with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Germany with the Royal Philharmonic, Western Canada with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and North America with the Hallé Orchestra. [5]

Parker has performed for the US Supreme Court, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999. [6]

Parker once appeared on an episode of the Canadian children's TV puppet series Under the Umbrella Tree. He played himself, as well as playing the role of the piano teacher of the lead character Holly (the only lead human among a small cast of puppets). Near the end of the episode Parker performs a concert as part of the show, starting with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Parker has recorded works by Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. His recordings appear on CBC Records and the Telarc labels, among others.

He is Professor of Piano at The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University in Houston, Texas, [7] and as of 2015, is part of the group "Off the Score", with Stewart Copeland, Yoon Kwon, Marlon Martinez and Judd Miller.

Parker's brother James Parker and cousin Ian Parker are also pianists. Together, they have recorded the Mozart piano concertos for 2 and 3 pianos for CBC Records. [8]

Charity work

Parker is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism. [9]

Related Research Articles

Thomas Bernard Heppner is a renowned Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Lortie</span> Canadian pianist

Louis Lortie is a Canadian pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian classical music</span>

In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janina Fialkowska</span> Musical artist

Janina Fialkowska, is a Canadian classical pianist. A specialist of the Classic and Romantic repertoires, for more than thirty years she has appeared regularly with professional orchestras around the world, often performing the music of Chopin, and also contemporary Polish composers including Lutosławski and Panufnik. In 1990, she gave the world premier performance of the recently discovered Franz Liszt Third Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Yeol Eum Son is a world renowned South Korean classical pianist. She is an interpreter of the Classical era of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as such later composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Over the past fifteen years, Son has achieved global acclaim for her performances of Mozart’s piano concertos.

Orli Shaham is an American pianist, born in Jerusalem, Israel, the daughter of scientists Meira Shaham (née Diskin) and Jacob Shaham. Her brothers are the violinist Gil Shaham and Shai Shaham, who is the head of the Laboratory of Developmental Genetics at Rockefeller University.

Hans Graf is an Austrian conductor.

Sergei Polusmiak born in 1951 in Kharkiv, Ukraine is a Ukrainian Pianist "Merited Artist of Ukraine". He graduated from Kharkiv Music College in 1969 and from Kharkiv Conservatory in 1975, where he studied with Regina Horowitz, sister of Vladimir Horowitz. in 1978 he received the Post Graduate Diploma at Kiev Conservatory, Ukraine and in 1981 completed Advanced Studies at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Russia. From 1975 to 1998 Sergei Polusmiak was teaching at Kharkiv Conservatory and at the Kharkiv Special Music School for Gifted Children Sergei Polusmiak started his professional career as a music educator and as a concert pianist by teaching, giving master classes, playing solo piano recitals, chamber music recitals and as a soloist with symphony orchestras. For his contribution as a concert pianist Sergei Polusmiak was awarded the title of "Merited Artist of Ukraine" by the President of Ukraine. in 1996 Sergei Polusmiak became a Full Professor of piano at Kharkiv Institute of Arts.

Roger Robinson "Trey" Wright III is an American classical concert pianist. He is also a Scrabble player who won the United States National Scrabble Championship in 2004.

Ronald Turini is a world renowned Canadian classical pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manitoba Chamber Orchestra</span> Canadian orchestra

The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is a chamber orchestra based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers an annual subscription series at Westminster United Church, which regularly features Canada's leading soloists, such as James Ehnes and Measha Brueggergosman, and Marc-André Hamelin. Other core MCO activities include recording, touring, and engaging extensive outreach in remote communities in northern Manitoba. Currently, Anne Manson serves as the MCO's Music Director, Karl Stobbe as its Concertmaster, and Vicki Young as its managing director.

Denise Djokic is a cellist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Strad magazine has called her instantly recognizable for her "arrestingly beautiful tone colour".

Steven Gellman is a Canadian composer and pianist. He has been commissioned to write works for the Besançon International Music Festival, the CBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic, McGill University, Musica Camerata, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Opera Lyra, the Pierrot Ensemble, the Stratford Festival, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra among others. Since 1976 he has taught music composition and theory at the University of Ottawa.

Marina Piccinini is an Italian American virtuoso flautist. She is noted for her performances of compositions by Mozart and Bach, and has performed with many of the world's top orchestras and conductors.

Avan Yu is a Hong Kong-born Canadian concert pianist. He is the winner of the 12th Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia as well as the silver medalist of the XVI Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition. He has performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Salle Cortot in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House.

Desmond Hoebig is a Canadian cellist with a career as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. Hoebig has held the chair of Principal Cellist in the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Hoebig is currently Professor of Cello at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, US. He is also on the faculty of The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. From 1989 to 1991 he was an associate professor at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Nikki Chooi is an American-Canadian classical violinist. Chooi is currently concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. He is a prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and first-prize winner of the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Montreal Symphony Manulife Competition, and Klein International Strings Competition.

Ian Parker is a Canadian classical pianist.

Robert Herschel Silverman, CM, born May 25, 1938, in Montreal is a noted Canadian pianist and piano pedagogue. He was made Member of the Order of Canada in 2013. In 1998 he became the inaugural recipient of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award of the Ontario Arts Foundation. His widely acclaimed 10-CD recording of all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas was short-listed for a Juno Award for Best Classical Album: Solo or Chamber Ensemble. His Liszt recording was awarded the 1977 Grand Prix du disque by the Budapest Liszt Society. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and occasional duet partner, pianist Ellen (Nivert) Silverman.

Angela Cheng is a Hong Kong-born Canadian classical pianist. She has performed internationally as a recitalist and as a guest soloist with orchestras. Cheng is a professor of piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

References

  1. "Bio for Jon Kimura Parker from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra". Pittsburghsymphony.org. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  2. "Jon Kimura Parker – piano". Offthescore.com.
  3. "Jon Kimura Parker", Glasgow Herald, August 27, 1985
  4. "Jon Kimura Parker biography". Ggpaa.ca. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  5. Jon Kimura Parker at The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed September 2, 2019
  6. "Meet the jury for the Cliburn Junior Competition | The Star-Telegram". Archived from the original on 2016-04-09.
  7. "Faculty of the Shepherd School". Rice University. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  8. "Pianist Parker to play with symphony", Houston Chronicle, April 12, 2012
  9. "Artists". Artistsagainstracism.org.