John Kimura Parker ( born Jon Kimura Parker ; born December 25, 1959 , Vancouver ) is a Canadian pianist .
He began to study music in his hometown with his uncle Edward Parker, made his debut with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra at the age of five. Later he studied with various Canadian specialists, and then graduated from the Juilliard School under the guidance of Adele Marcus , in the same place in 1988 received a doctorate in music. In 1983 , he became the first Virginia Parker Prize winner to be established for young musicians in Canada. He began his international career by winning the Leeds International Piano Competition ( 1984 ).
According to the critic, Parker sounds “right”, without extravagance and eccentricity; he is inventive, graceful and takes for the soul ” [1] . Kimura Parker is distinguished, however, by his manner of encoding various kinds of unexpected numbers (in particular, from the repertoire of Elton John , Oscar Peterson , Billy Joel , Art Tatum ), and once, by his own admission, he used the cadence for the famous 21st concert Mozart's theme from music to the TV series "Star Trek" [2] .
Kimura Parker is also known for his charitable and educational events. In particular, he gave a charity New Year’s concert in Sarajevo in 1995 , is (along with Mark Andre Amelen and Andre Laplant ) one of the members of the “piano six” - a group of Canadian pianists participating in concert programs in remote areas of his country.
Among the recordings of Kimura Parker is the piano concert of Samuel Barber , works by Chopin , Tchaikovsky , Prokofiev . He teaches at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston .
Notes
- ↑ David Stabler. Oregon Symphony opener a major disappointment // The Oregonian, October 04, 2009 .
- ↑ 5 minutes with ... Jon Kimura Parker // American Music Teacher, Aug 1, 2006. (English)