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Composer of the Month - April, 2006

Alice Parker, b. 1925
by Daryl Lee

At the final concert of the 2005-2006 season, the Michael O'Neal Singers will present Robert Shaw Remembered, followed the next day by a workshop featuring Alice Parker.  And who is better qualified to help music lovers remember Robert Shaw than his long-time arranger and composer?

The composition and arrangement of music, if indeed a distinction need be made, has been her life. At an age when most children have not conceived of writing plain English, Alice had done her first music composition. While still in high school, she completed her first full orchestral score.  After attending Smith College, she took a graduate degree in conducting, taught by the man who would become the premiere choral and symphonic conductor of the twentieth century, Robert Shaw. This began an association that continued until his death in 1999.  Beginning with the Robert Shaw Chorale, he sought her out to provide high-quality arrangements of traditional folk and sacred music.  Her talent as a composer and Shaw's gifts as a conductor gave America and the world a literature of choral music that cannot be overestimated.  What singer of choral music has not held in his or her hand a sheet of music with those magical words: Arr. Alice Parker?

Her great talent as a composer/arranger is legendary, but her talent as a conductor must not be overlooked, either.  In 1985, she was urged by friends and associates to start her own performance group, and Melodious Accord was born.  A 16-voice professional ensemble dedicated to performing traditional music with Alice's touch, the Musicians of Melodious Accord has recently embarked on an ambitious project to record all of her original literature. The National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Music Fund, the New York Council on the Arts, as well is individual donors, are underwriting the project. Conductors since time immemorial have conjectured as to what sound and nuances the composer originally intended; now they will have access to recordings that will remove all doubt.

Besides composing and arranging, Alice is an active evangelist for excellence in choral singing.  She travels extensively conducting workshops such as the one mentioned above, guiding and exhorting groups small and large, secular and sacred, to do with excellence what is a most excellent enterprise—choral singing. Her message is summed up in the subtitle of her recent book: Good Singing in Church.

Alice serves on the Board of Directors of Chorus America.  She has been recognized not only by being given awards, but has also had an award named for her: the Alice Parker ASCAP-Chorus America Award, given to members of Chorus America who have the courage to take risks by taking their music programs in new directions.

For further reading on Alice Parker:
http://aliceparker.com/html/apbio.html

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