Now available on iTunes, CD Baby, and at concert venues!

Jon Kimura Parker celebrates the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and the tragic story of Petrouchka, with his own blazing new transcriptions

To download on iTunes: enter “Jon Kimura Parker Rite” in search window, or click here to purchase on CD Baby!

New York, NY – April 9, 2013 – On April 9, 2013, pianist Jon Kimura Parker will release a recording of his fierce new transcription of The Rite of Spring – in time for the work’s centenary in May – coupled with his transcription of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka on his first new solo album in a decade.

The music that shocked Paris in 1913 is now standard concert fare. Young conductors know they must conquer the score as a literal rite of passage. But it is undeniably quixotic to play Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at the piano.

In live performances of his transcription of The Rite of Spring, Parker has been unanimously praised for the thrilling way in which he tackles the complex orchestration with just two hands. “It was dizzying to watch his hands dance and careen across the keyboard,” wrote the Toronto Star. “At times at was as if Serge Diaghilev’s ballet were there in spirit, as well.” The Utah Chronicle went on to say “Parker did not miss a beat, a theme, a gesture, a mood or the general feeling of the masterwork. It was breathtaking.”

Since college days, the primitivism in The Rite of Spring held special appeal to Parker as he began discovering the continuum of classical music that followed Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. In particular, having grown up on Genesis, Rush, and Frank Zappa, Parker was drawn to its ever-changing rhythmic patterns. He began by tackling The Rite by ear but his obsession with playing this music at the piano began in earnest when he discovered Stravinsky’s piano duet arrangement. “I noticed that Stravinsky, having arranged the duet primarily to facilitate ballet rehearsal, was less fastidious with details than I had expected,” wrote Parker. “I became engrossed in adding instrumental lines that had been left out.  From there, it was a natural evolution to try to manage it all myself.”

The Rite of Spring has been arranged for solo piano before, in versions so bare as to be unsatisfying, or so inclusive as to be unplayable. However, it is well known that Stravinsky often composed at the piano, and many sections in The Rite bear this out.  Parker notes, “Playing The Rite of Spring at the piano I am reminded of the day that I first saw an exhibition of Picasso’s pencil sketches side by side with the finished paintings.  Despite the absence of color, the angular power of the lines had even greater impact.”

Petrouchka (1911) presented a different challenge for Parker, in that Stravinsky had already created a virtuoso solo piano suite from selected moments of the ballet. In the process of relearning Three Movements from Petrouchka for concert performance, Parker’s daughter noticed that her favorite section of the complete ballet, the Bear Dance, was missing. In addition to putting that back in, Parker subsequently added the percussive rattling that separates each act. This led to a glissando-like run down the slippery slope of playing the whole ballet, ultimately recreating how he heard the orchestra in performance.

Of a live performance of his Petrouchka transcription at Ravinia, the Chicago Classical Review raved “With a nothing-held-back, physically involved performance, Parker served as a musical storyteller, bringing his solo-piano take compellingly to life.” He vividly captured the bustling, evocative, ever-changing character of this ballet, not to mention its all-important rhythmic punch and drive…Needless to say, this was extraordinarily complex and challenging music, and while Parker did not exactly make it look easy, he certainly pulled it off with sure-fingered élan.”

Parker will perform his transcription of The Rite of Spring in concert this April and May in Oregon, Kansas, Washington and Ontario. Details about Jon Kimura Parker’s complete spring 2013 dates can be found here.

CONTACT:  Rebecca Davis • Rebecca Davis Public Relations • 347-432-8832 • rebecca@rebeccadavispr.com

"I absolutely assumed that all cities were as beautiful and diverse as Vancouver, and I still chastise myself for not appreciating it enough when I lived there."

A professor of piano at Rice University, Parker has lived in Houston for the last 10 years and makes it back up to his hometown of Vancouver once or twice a year, often to play with the VSO, which he’ll do once again (performing the Grieg Piano Concerto) later this month.

“When warming up before a concert, many performers focus on the technical difficult passages. I tend to play the whole work through from beginning to end. Sometimes I do this on the most hideously out-of-tune upright pianos in concert hall basements! If I am performing from memory I go through a mental checklist of all the dangerously confusing spots. Most importantly, I make sure to have something to eat. I hate playing hungry.

“I’ve also learned that while the conductor is my most important musical ally when I perform with orchestra, my most practical ally can be the piano technician. There’s a lot of last-minute fussing that can hugely help my performances!

“Having actually organized and pulled off a family vacation to Hawaii over the holidays, I feel like I’m currently balanced. But the truth is, a work/life balance is very difficult to maintain, and I tend to overwork. Despite being 53, I tend to think of myself as an “emerging artist”! I’m always looking for some other challenge or some concert I’ve never played.

“I’m profoundly grateful for being able to do work that reflects humanity. I couldn’t manage work that revolved around numbers on a computer screen, for example. To know that a musical performance has touched someone makes everything about being a musician worthwhile. Sometimes I walk down the street and look at people’s faces and try to imagine what music they most like to listen to. But I would probably be wrong as often as I would be right.

“I met two pianists who changed my life. The first was concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein, whom I met backstage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre when I was 12. I was utterly resolved to do what he did – to communicate joy through music. In my 20s I met legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson several times. He knew that I worshipped him. He inspired me in exactly the same way: I was once so close to him at the Blue Note Jazz Club [in New York] that I heard him grunting with pleasure at a particular turn of phrase.

“I was raised in Vancouver for the first 20 years of my life, in North Burnaby. Other than a trip to Tokyo to visit relatives when I was a teenager, I travelled infrequently. I absolutely assumed that all cities were as beautiful and diverse as Vancouver, and I still chastise myself for not appreciating it enough when I lived there. I love the mountains, and the ocean, and forests, and of course all of that is on Vancouver’s doorstep. From a musical perspective, my mother particularly inspired me to be disciplined and my father showed me what music could mean emotionally. I can’t imagine being successful as a pianist without both of those influences in equal amounts. I did go through a massive rebellion phase of wanting to be much more hip than my parents, whose only musical pleasure was classical. I still listen to a lot of rock when I’m not working!

Jon Kimura Parker | International Musician cover story

Jon Kimura Parker

By Cherie Yurco

As a concert pianist, Jon Kimura Parker of Local 145 (Vancouver, BC) travels to a different venue most every weekend, giving 60 or 70 concerts each year. He’s also professor of piano for Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Houston. We caught up with him when he was “commuting” between Houston and China for performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos No. 3 and No. 4.

“This is a very exciting tour; I’m playing as a soloist with the three most important orchestras in China—China Philharmonic in Beijing, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Guangzhou Symphony,” he says explaining why he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity, despite the fact that he was in mid-semester and preparing for a student concert in early December. So, he’s flying back and forth for weekend concerts on the other side of the world.

A dedicated educator, Parker took on his position at Shepherd about 11 years ago. He had just turned 40 and felt drawn to teach. “I started to feel a responsibility to pass on the legacy because I benefited from great teaching,” explains the musician whose own instruction began with his mom and uncle, both piano instructors.

Raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Parker’s family never missed a Vancouver Symphony performance. They first took note of Parker’s musical abilities when he unexpectedly plucked out a CBC theme song on the piano at age three. Parker fondly remembers his first performance with Vancouver Youth Symphony at age five, despite getting lost in the violin section on his way to the piano.

In first grade, he told his teacher that he was going to be a concert pianist “just like Rubinstein,” one of three early piano influences that Parker names. “I listened to his recordings, and he graced the then-small city of Vancouver with live performances on a regular basis,” says Parker, adding that he even met Arthur Rubinstein backstage. “What I loved about his playing was that his love for music clearly affected everybody in the hall.”

Other early piano influences are surprisingly not classical, and include Oscar Peterson and Elton John. “Peterson was arguably the world’s greatest ever jazz pianist,” says Parker. “I have endless admiration for him. He radiated incredible joy when he played.”

“Elton John was responsible for me making friends in middle school,” explains Parker. “I was kind of a piano nerd and socially a little uncomfortable. I learned the whole Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album by ear and could play the tunes for kids in my class.” Today, an autographed copy of the album hangs in his office at Shepherd.

Sharing Wisdom

Rather than distracting him from his performance career, Parker says that teaching has benefitted his own playing. “The fact that I have to clearly verbalize my ideas, makes the ideas clearer to me, and because I spend so much time listening in a very focused way, I’ve fine-tuned my ability to listen in all sorts of circumstances, including when I’m giving a concert,” he says.

Working with students also takes Parker back to his own youth. “I want to be inspiring to my students, but the fact is that they inspire me,” he concludes. “Their view of music reminds me of the energy and fresh approach I had in my 20s. That puts me back in touch with my younger self, which is very important.”

So, Parker, in turn, shares the wisdom that comes from 25 years of performing recitals, chamber music, and as a concert soloist, something he refers to as “the best of both worlds.” “[As a concert soloist] it is a huge artistic responsibility presenting a work like that on stage, and at the same time collaborating with a conductor and an orchestra. Everybody on stage is important and involved in the music,” he asserts.

Among Parker’s personal favorite concertos to perform are Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven No. 3, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Gershwin Concerto in F. “I like to play the ones where the orchestra is as involved as I am,” he concludes.

One of the key skills he tries to pass on to his students is how to make the music their own without straying too far from the composer’s intentions. “You have to first get a feel for how much the composer is inviting you to be personal,” he explains. “Schumann, and to an almost similar extent, Chopin, really invite a performer to be personal. With Debussy, to a large extent, you should submerge your personality and try to do what he asked you to do.”

Modern Audiences

Of course, there are other things he considers in his approach to each performance, which must cater to an evolving modern audience. “Today, an audience in America responds well to a style of playing where they are brought into the music,” says Parker who uses sound and timing to help draw them in. “My idea of a piano recital is to try and create an atmosphere that we are all together in a drawing room. I often talk to the audience just enough to break the ice. That way you invite people into the experience.”

To that end, Parker has created a series of Concerto Chat videos (available at www.jonkimuraparker.com). “That’s part of my personal mandate to explain what makes a piece interesting,” he says, adding that the videos are also a marketing tool for orchestras, which use them to promote single ticket sales on their websites.

“That’s another thing that has changed,” Parker continues, explaining that today fewer people are subscription holders. “An orchestra is much more dependent on single ticket sales, so a program has to be interesting on its own merits.”

And because of these changing dynamics, Parker is thankful that the union is around to support orchestras. “The union is extremely important to me,” he says. “I think the union has done so much for the health of orchestras in this country, and for musicians to feel that they are treated well.”

Finally, he says, exposing children to the music is more critical than ever. “When I’m traveling I spend quite a bit of time playing in schools and educational programs,” he says, asserting that most of them won’t stay with music, but it familiarizes them with something they will come back to as tomorrow’s audience. “Almost everybody I meet after a concert tells me about their experiences taking piano lessons, yet almost none still play. However, they have an appreciation for the physicality of playing and for music as an art form, and that translates to them coming to concerts.”

Life on the Road

The life of a concert pianist is solitary and unique among professional musicians. Every instrument they perform on is different, and it’s critical that they be flexible and able to quickly adapt. “I often arrive in a city late on Wednesday, meet the conductor for the first time on Thursday, have an afternoon rehearsal, and then Friday we have a dress rehearsal and concert,” he says.

“So, in a very short time we need to collaborate on a major piece of music in a meaningful way. Being able to make that relationship work quickly, to have artistic conviction, and at the same time, a certain degree of flexibility, is a big part of traveling and playing concertos,” he adds.

“The other person I have to communicate with effectively is the local piano technician. There are a lot of little things that can be done to make a piano sound more Rachmaninoff friendly or more Mozart friendly,” explains Parker. “Some of that you can do yourself as a pianist, but you really want your technician to feel motivated to make it work as best as they can for you.”

Looking back on hundreds of performances worldwide, two stand out in his mind. “The first time I played Carnegie Hall I was playing the Prokofiev Piano Concerto, and I was probably 27 or so. My heart started pounding so fast I thought I might pass out,” he says. “When I started to play, I felt at home and the concert went really well. After that I thought, ‘You know, if you can survive Carnegie Hall, you can always look back on that and feel a little better about whatever you are nervous about,’ and I often do.”

However, the concert he is most proud of wasn’t performed in a fancy hall. In 1995, he was invited by the relief organization AmeriCares to perform with the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra at a New Year’s Eve concert following the Dayton Peace Agreement. “I accompanied an airlift on a C-130 transport plane, put on a flak jacket, and was taken by armored car to my hotel in Sarajevo. The whole thing was truly surreal,” he says. “The concert hall was damaged; they got enough electricity to have light, but there wasn’t much heat. I was amazed there was a good Steinway that had not been damaged.”

“I played the Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. At the end of the performance, an elderly Bosnian women came backstage eager to speak with me,” says Parker. “Through a translator she told me that she wanted me know that, during the second movement, for a few brief minutes, she realized that she had forgotten about the war. And I thought, ‘That’s why I’m a musician.’ Everything I’ve done as a musician added up to that one statement. I’ll never forget how I felt and everything about that experience. As memorable concerts go, that takes the cake.”

Despite living in the US for the past 30 years, Parker remains a member of his original Vancouver local. “It’s a way of identifying with my roots,” he says, adding that he still has close musical ties to the city. In fact, this January he will be touring the US as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. “It’s a huge honor to be part of that tour. I’ll be playing the Grieg Piano Concerto, the very first piano concerto I performed with them back in 1980.”

Parker’s 2013 calendar is already booked through May with more than 30 performances, yet he still finds time for other projects. “To celebrate the centennial of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, I have recorded my own arrangements of the complete ballet,” he says, adding he wasn’t sure if it could be done when he first tackled the project, working from the full orchestral score. The CD will be available early in the new year and he will be performing it at a recital series, “Doing Rite by Stravinsky,” throughout the spring

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker brough power, drama and bright energy to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 over the weekend. Photo credit: Maurice J. Beznos

The Oregon Symphony had pianist Jon Kimura Parker back in town to help kick off its subscription season over the weekend, and while Carlos Kalmar and the orchestra played gracious host to their guest while he was at the keyboard, they reserved a fair bit of the evening’s limelight for themselves.

A favorite of Portland audiences and a genial presence on stage, Parker offered a crystalline performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, with power and drama suited to the music’s minor mood and frequent storminess but also with effortless bright energy in its virtuosic solo part. As is often the case with his most intensely dramatic music (parts of “Don Giovanni,” for example, which share the concerto’s D minor modality), Mozart conveyed emotion and drama while also drawing you to how brilliantly he himself was pulling the whole thing off. Parker’s fleet runs, pristine ornaments and magnificent cadenzas gave the same sense; however portentous the material, the playing was still a joy.

Balance was nicely modulated, both between soloist and ensemble (though orchestral swells threatened to swamp the piano at times) and between Parker’s hands.

In the concerto as well as in the encore, Mozart’s Rondo “alla Turca,” even the simplest figures in the left hand emerged clearly again the densest textures in the right. Kalmar led the orchestra in gracious, responsive and carefully shaped accompaniment.

Jon Kimura Parker by Tara McMullen

this saturday, sunday, and monday, keyboard megastar jon kimura parker sits in with the oregon symphony to help officially open their 2012/13 classical season.  p-town is lucky to host him, and the beavs is lucky to have him tackle 10 questions for the blog.  let’s get to it, shall we?

you’re scheduled to perform mozart’s piano concerto #20 with the band ~ how would you describe this music?

Mozart 20 is the “Bad Boy” of Mozart piano concertos.  If you have a vague notion of Mozart being polite, this masterpiece of drama, darkness, and dissonance will convince you otherwise.  It’s truly operatic.  Every time the music begins to promise sunshine, there’s a plot twist and the scene changes.  Even the 2nd movement, titled Romanza, is interrupted by a truly violent outburst.  Eventually Mozart turns the tables on everything and ends in a surprising spirit of optimism.

i happen to love bad boys – cannot wait to hear you play this thing!  let’s see… rachmaninoff’s symphonic dances also grace the program.  what are your thoughts?

This is his last work and dispels everyone’s popular notions of the composer.  Although there are the kinds of melodies that made Rachmaninoff famous throughout his lifetime, the overall flavor also veers into darkness and mystery.  The end of the Symphonic Dances may be the most exciting moment in all of orchestral music.  It’s earth-shattering.  You’ll be looking around for microphones and speakers, but rest assured that it’s all unplugged!

the most exciting moment in all of orchestral music?! wow, that is quite a bold statement mr. parker… you have my little heart thumping with anticipation!  i’m thinking i need a drink after your response – what are you having?

Assuming you don’t want to pay for a glass of ’82 Petrus, I’d order a Bombay Sapphire martini with a twist.  Of course, in Portland, I might ask for a beer recommendation.

now you’re talking.  and as luck would have it, another fresh hop season is upon us!  okay, don’t get me started on beer.  next query: suppose i have 48 hours in vancouver (canada‘s, not america‘s) ~ what should I do?

After a morning latte, head to the Museum of Anthropology near the campus of the University of British Columbia.  There is no other museum like it in the world.  Find a Japanese noodle shop for lunch and have a big, steaming bowl of ramen.  Drive to Granville Island and walk around the shops and market.  Go to Tojo’s for dinner and submit to whatever he wants to serve you.  The next day, drive to Stanley Park and walk around the seawall.  For lunch, hit Japadog and try something you’ve never heard of.  Resist returning to Tojo for dinner and try Vij’s Indian.

yum!  alright, i’ll ask you the same question i asked *james ehnes a while back: you are a member of the order of canada ~ what are your responsibilities and, more importantly, do you have a sword?

Sword?!  Wouldn’t that have been cool… I was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999, and I consider it the single greatest honour (note Canadian spelling) that I’ve ever received.  There are no responsibilities attached to it except to continue to be a good citizen of Canada.

officer parker, what is your favourite piano to play?

I have a baby grand Steinway, the only piano that I’ve ever owned personally, that I just love.  I bought it from a student in my 2nd year at Juilliard, and it has a beautiful sound and a friendly touch.  Ironically, it’s a piano I’ve never performed on professionally!  Such is a pianist’s lot…

nice.  hey, if you could invite 3 composers out for dinner, who would you choose?

Mozart: we’d go for a beer and shoot pool.  Brahms: I’d just want to say thank you over a Linzertorte mit schlag.  Frank Zappa: ’nuff said.

uh-oh: i hear wolfgang’s a bit of a hustler – watch out!  tell me, what’s so great about experiencing classical music live?

Personally I love sitting in the balcony and scoping out the orchestra with binoculars, but it’s also fun to sit up very close and see the coordinated efforts of dozens of violinists performing as one.  A symphony orchestra offers the sheer sonic glory of so many musicians performing live on acoustic instruments ranging from the piccolo to the tuba.  When you’re there live, the music envelopes you and just takes over.

you play as many as 100 concerts in a single year, which is kind of insane for me to even think about.  do you get butterflies anymore before a gig?

I get a little nervous before almost every performance.  Generally it’s ‘good’ nerves, the kind that kick up your adrenalin and push you to greater heights.  Occasionally the ‘bad’ nerves creep up, like when you’re playing in Carnegie Hall, or playing for live television, or playing anything for the first time.  But still, it’s a necessary part of being onstage.

okay, last question: what are you expecting from the oregon symphony?

Nothing less than perfection!

done.  mr. parker, on behalf of all those beaver readers out there, i can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your crazy-busy schedule and offering up some truly brilliant responses.  sooo looking forward to your upcoming show!

now, about those fresh hops…

James Ehnes (formal) and Jon Kimura Parker (casual) by Maurice J. Beznos

Outside the Nordstrom Recital Hall, it was cold and rainy.

Inside the hall, it was smoking hot — especially when James Ehnes and Jon Kimura Parker took the stage to play Bartok in this opening program of the 31st Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival. The festival, which annually opens the week of the Fourth of July, is always a reliable source of fireworks (of the musical variety), but Monday evening’s opener was even more incendiary than usual.

Ehnes, the festival’s artistic director, and Parker, artistic adviser of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, are an ideal pairing of verve and artistry at the violin and piano. Whenever they join forces, it sounds as if they were inventing the music as they go, so spontaneous is their musical partnership. In Monday’s concert, the Bartok Violin Sonata No. 1 took on new dimensions in a performance that really deserved a recording.

Ehnes just goes from strength to strength as a violinist; he’s better every year. In the Bartok, he changed the focus of his sound the way a photographer adjusts an image from hazy to sharp and back again. The ruminative Adagio sounded like an extended meditation, personal and spontaneous. In the hair-raising wild ride of the blazing final Allegro, Ehnes at one point briefly examined his violin, and one wondered if he were looking for scorch marks.

At the piano, Parker was the kind of duo partner violinists dream about: together every step of the way, intuitive, with a technique that verges on the frankly impossible — especially in that runaway-train finale. The audience leapt up with the kind of ovation that only follows a really electrifying performance.

REVIEW | 04. 27.12 | By Allan Kozinn | The New York Times

Cho-Liang Lin, Jon Kimura Parker, and Liz Parker

New-music fans who object when musical organizations present contemporary works in special concerts, where they won’t intrude on the classics — the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series, or the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse concerts, for example — would have approved of the way the society presented John Harbison’s new Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano on Tuesday evening at Alice Tully Hall.

The work, which the society commissioned as part of a consortium, was given its world premiere at the concert by the violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the pianist Jon Kimura Parker, and it was surrounded by two staples of the Romantic canon: Beethoven’s Trio in E flat (Op. 1, No. 1), for which Mr. Lin and Mr. Parker were joined by the cellist Gary Hoffman, and Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor (Op. 60), with the violist Richard O’Neill filling out the ensemble.

Apart from the programmatic vote of confidence that surrounding Mr. Harbison with Beethoven and Brahms represents, having Mr. Lin and Mr. Parker perform in all three works afforded a measure of continuity that the society’s concerts do not always have, and in a way, that was a sign of confidence as well: a way of saying that the ensemble sees Mr. Harbison as part of a historical continuum.

Mr. Harbison’s sonata is substantial, if not especially groundbreaking, and though its language naturally sounds dissonant in this context, it is never much harsher than early Stravinsky. Indeed, Stravinsky appears to have been on Mr. Harbison’s mind: fleeting passages have both the acidity and rhythmic jaggedness of the fiddle writing in “L’Histoire du Soldat.”

But Mr. Harbison also takes a formal approach to structure, pacing and musical development that ties him to Beethoven and Brahms. His piece is in five distinct but connected movements, including a slow, lyrical aria as its heart and a closing rondo, to which Mr. Harbison appends a meditative postscript. And when Stravinsky’s influence is soft-pedaled, others shine through. Some of the piano writing, for instance, is bright, rollicking and jazzy, and both musicians are given opportunities to show off their strengths and flexibility.

Mr. Lin and Mr. Parker made a strong case for the score in an energetic, unified reading. Those qualities also enlivened the Beethoven and Brahms performances, which benefited as well from the supple characterization that familiarity can bring.

In the Beethoven Mr. Parker’s crisply focused pianism captured this early work’s playfulness and sparkle, just as the shifting balance of warmth and brightness in Mr. Lin’s and Mr. Hoffman’s tone caught the young Beethoven’s nods to courtly propriety and bursts of rebellious assertiveness.

In the Brahms the ensemble’s robust interplay countered the work’s gravitas without thoroughly dispelling it. The vigor with which Mr. Parker pounced on themes in the scherzo was especially striking. So was the ensemble’s decision to prize passion over drive in the finale.

Jon Kimura Parker's hands by Tara McMullen

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra welcomed March not with a lamb, but with a formidable musical lion as it featured world-class Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker in its latest Masterworks concert, the aptly titled Parker Plays Brahms 2.

The highlight of Friday night’s concert, led by Alexander Mickelthwate, was the Vancouver-born artist performing Johannes Brahms’ Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 83. The four-movement epic work is considered a staple in any major concert artist’s diet, on par with others including: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 30 or Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 16.

Parker established an international career after winning the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 1984. He has performed with symphony orchestras around the world as well as given command performances for royalty. Currently on faculty with Rice University, he maintains an active performing career and received the Order of Canada in 1999. The versatile musician last graced the WSO stage in 2004 when he performed Gershwin’s jazzy Concerto in F.

Brahms’ heavily romantic work steeped with Beethoven’s influence demands a player who can grasp the entire piece as a whole, and Parker proved he had it well in hand. After associate principal horn Ken MacDonald’s evocative opening solo, he launched into the first movement Allegro non troppo with gusto. His renowned liquid tone and gorgeous voicing became immediately evident as he coaxed sound from his instrument, including double trills and bell-like tones in the upper register. But Parker is also known for his dazzling showmanship; a player of temperament unafraid to let open torrid floodgates. This he did during the Allegro appassionato, despite also being under the weather that night.

The Andante is one of those pieces for the proverbial desert island. Parker once again sculpted sound like an artist, filling his solo passages with world-weary resignation and suspended grace after principal cellist Yuri Hooker’s soulful opening melody. The Allegretto grazioso caps off the 50-minute work with its rollicking rhythms crisply articulated by the pianist. Audience members leapt to their feet in a rousing standing ovation, knowing they had just heard one of Canada’s top living classical artists today.

Jon Kimura Parker and Jamie Parker, percussionists? - photos by Derk Jager

We need to have a quiet talk about pianists and their closet desires to be percussionists. In fact, we already are: by any rational definition, the piano is a percussion instrument – we hit a key, which in turn causes a hammer to hit a string, and sound is produced. But most pianists spend their entire professional lives trying not to make a piano sound like a percussion instrument. Our greatest inspiration in this endeavor is Chopin, whose music invites an approach more akin to singing.

But every once in awhile, the urge to be percussive takes over. My colleague, the great artist Emanuel Ax, took tympani lessons which culminated in a cameo performance in a Beethoven Overture with the Toronto Symphony. My approach is less subtle: I just work in percussion instruments whenever they’re handy.

When our program annotator Jeff O’Kelly wrote, of Gershwin’s piano duet arrangement of his Cuban Overture, that “one cannot help regretting the loss of the exotic percussion instruments,” Jamie and I took that as a personal challenge, and not only were the congas very handy (yes, on rare occasions, I can multitask…) but Jamie used his wedding band to great effect in the quiet, middle section of the overture as well.

The Cuban Overture was the beginning of a program that went in many directions. Coming up with program titles is great fun. As Artistic Director, Aloysia often has an idea and makes the music fit. This program sprung from several requests from the artists themselves, and from the beginning was clearly about global variety, featuring not only the Cuban rhythms, but Czech bravura, Russian ballet, German Lieder, and Argentinian Tangos. As we were fussing about the title, I was simultaneously booking flights for an upcoming tour. On the Continental web site, I departed “Round Trip” mode and clicked on “Multiple Destinations” and thought, “Aha, there’s our title!”

Martin Chalifour in Suk's "Burleska"

Martin Chalifour, fresh off the plane at 5pm from having performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl the night before, dazzled with a Kreisler Caprice, the Ysaÿe Ballade, and two pieces by Joseph Suk.

We were, honestly, a bit concerned about the tight turnaround time and the lack of comfort time to rehearse, which we solved by having a quick pre-festival rehearsal last April when I was in L.A. with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Yizhak Schotten and Katherine Collier

Following Chalifour, the viola/piano duo of Yizhak Schotten and Katherine Collier took us to Prokofiev’s Russia with their own customized arrangement of Five Pieces from the Ballet Romeo and Juliet.

Schotten has a prodigious repertoire of viola jokes, and then proves them all false whenever he plays. Collier had more notes than the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.

Yizhak and Katherine have directed festivals and chamber music series across the country for over 30 years – it’s a pleasure to welcome them to Orcas this year.

Multiple Destinations took a turn towards Germany for a selection of Hugo Wolf songs which I performed with baritone Philip Cutlip in his farewell performance at this year’s Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. This was my first experience with Wolf.

The Gryphon Trio performing Christos Hatzis' "Old Photographs"

What utterly gorgeous music! Never one to give you the harmony you expect, Wolf, in his fanatic devotion to mirroring the text, surprises constantly. Philip was a joy.

The Gryphon Trio (Jamie Parker, piano, Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin and Roman Borys, cello) presented the beautiful multimedia work Old Photographs by Christos Hatzis, and rounded out Multiple Destinations with a set of tangos by Astor Piazzolla.

Multiple Destinations was performed on August 19th at 7:30pm and August 20th at 5:00pm. In case you’re wondering how I prepared for the 5pm concert – I got up early and baked 5 peach/ginger pies so that I’d have dessert ready when all the musicians came over for dinner…