"…Parker sailed through the [Gershwin Piano Concerto in F] as if he had written it. [He] exhibited a strong affinity for jazz idioms and excelled in Gershwin’s fast, light, syncopated passages. Particularly beautiful were his cadenzas and his interplay with the orchestra...”

 

Honolulu Symphony

HONOLULU ADVERTISER

 

 

 

Magnetic, easy-going and delightfully articulate, Canadian pianist Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he goes. He has appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, CBC Symphony Vancouver, Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, Edmonton Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Mobile Symphony, National Symphony, Quebec Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and the symphonies of Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg, among others.

An enthusiastic recitalist, Ian Parker has performed across the United States, Western Europe, Israel, and throughout Canada on tours with Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. He made his Lincoln Center recital debut at the Walter Reade Theater in 2004.

Mr. Parker was invited to collaborate with the internationally renowned Vogler Quartet during its twentieth anniversary tour in 2005-06 throughout the U.S. and Canada. Following the tour’s tremendous success, he was invited to join them again for several concerts in the spring of 2006, and has continued to tour with them regularly ever since.  They have also invited him to perform as part of their Vogler Springs Festival in Sligo, Ireland and the Kammermusik Festival in Hamburg, Germany.  As duo-recitalist, Ian Parker has toured with violinist Augustin Hadelich in the U.S. and Canada during the 2009-10 and 20010-11 seasons.

Recent seasons have seen a great deal of recording activity: in the fall of 2010, three concerti (Ravel Concerto in G, Stravinsky Capriccio, and Gershwin Concerto in F), recorded with the London Symphony under Michael Francis, were released by ATMA Classique; an all-fantasy solo CD on Azica Records, including the fantasies of Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven (Op. 27, nos. 1 and 2 “Quasi una Fantasia”), was released in the summer of 2010.

First Prize winner at the 2001 CBC National Radio Competition, Ian Parker has also won the Grand Prize at the Canadian National Music Festival, the Corpus Christie International  Competition and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition. At The Juilliard School, he received the 2002 William Petschek Piano Debut Award and, on two occasions, was the winner of the Gina Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition. Heard regularly on CBC Radio, Mr. Parker has also performed live on WQXR (hosted by Robert Sherman) in New York.

Born in Vancouver to a family of pianists, Ian Parker began his piano studies at age three with his father, Edward Parker. He holds both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. While at Juilliard, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded him the Sylva Gelber Career Grant, which is given annually to the “most talented Canadian artist.”

www.ianparker.ca

Biography

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