Magnetic, easy-going, and delightfully articulate, Canadianpianist/conductor Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he goes. As a pianist, he has appeared with virtually every Canadian orchestra, notably the symphonies of Toronto, Quebec, Vancouver, Montreal,Winnipeg, Edmonton, the Calgary Philharmonic and OrchestreMétropolitain. Other highlights include the San Francisco, Cincinnati, National/Washington D.C, Santa Barbara, Richmond, and Honolulu symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, Buffalo Philharmonic,and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, to name a few. Conductor collaborationsinclude Andrey Boreyko, JoAnn Falletta, Michael Francis, Bernhard Gueller, Giancarlo Guerrero, Fabio Mechetti, Edwin Outwater, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Bramwell Tovey, Joshua Weilerstein, and others.

 

Ian Parker is currently in his fifth season as music director and principal conductor of the VAM Symphony Orchestra at the Vancouver Academy of Music. Working with some of Canada’s most promising young orchestral players, Mr. Parker programs and conducts four concerts per season in Vancouver’s historic Orpheum Theater. He also initiated an ambitiousrecording program, which intensified during the pandemic when live performances were suspended, and has already encompassed complete cycles of Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. Additionally, he is Artistic Director of the Resonate chamber music series at the Kay Meek Centre in North Vancouver.

 

An enthusiastic recitalist, Mr. Parker has performed across the United States, Europe, Israel, and throughout Canada ontours with Debut Atlantic, Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and Piano Six. Recital highlights include the Walter ReadeTheater at Lincoln Center, UCLA, the University of British Columbia, and collaborative performances at the HawaiiInternational Music Festival and the Morgan Library in New York City.

 

Mr. Parker’s piano recordings include a CD with the London Symphony featuring three piano concertos: Ravel’s Concertoin G, Stravinsky’s Capriccio, and the Gershwin Concerto in F, conducted by Michael Francis and released by ATMA Classique; and an all-fantasy solo disk including fantasies of Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven for Azica Records; and three Mozart concertos: for one piano (K. 467), two pianos (K. 365), and three pianos (K. 242), featuring Mr. Parker and his two cousins, Jon Kimura Parker and Jamie Parker, produced by CBC Records with the Radio Orchestra and conductor Mario Bernardi.

 

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 Christi 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 winnerof the Gina Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition. Heard regularly on CBC Radio, he has also performed live on WQXR (hosted by Robert Sherman) in New York.

 

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

 

www.ianparker.ca .

 

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“It was a show-stopping performance from Parker and the LPO [Gershwin’s Concerto in F] …”TIMES-PICAYUNE (New Orleans)

 

 

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