TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Internationally acclaimed pianist Jon Kimura Parker will headline the final Celebrity Series event of the 1999-2000 season at The University of Alabama on Tuesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., in UA’s Moody Music Concert Hall.
Tickets are $30 and $25, and are available at the Moody box office or by calling 205/348-7111.
“We are delighted that one of the worldís premiere pianists will help us close out another exciting Celebrity Series at The University of Alabama,” said David Durant, coordinator of music services at UA. “Of course, each of our performances year in and year out has been geared to bringing Tuscaloosa some of the finest artists known around the country and world, and Jon Kimura Parker has undeniably built a wonderful career that has spanned the globe as he has performed from London to Hong Kong. Just prior to his visit here to Tuscaloosa, Parker will be performing again in Hong Kong, and he will perform in Germany just after he leaves West Alabama. So we are truly in for an outstanding event.”
Parker has given two command performances for Queen Elizabeth II, and has performed for the Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan, and for the United States Supreme Court. A remarkably versatile artist, Parker has, in recent seasons, performed in Carnegie Hall (with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra), Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Sydney Opera House. Additionally, he has toured the Canadian Arctic as part of “Piano Six” performing the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Nirvana, and Alanis Morissette on an electronic keyboard for more than 1,000 Inuit school students; played with Doc Severinsen and the original Tonight Show Orchestra; been profiled in “Newsweek” magazine in Australia; and given an impromptu concert at the Victoria Falls Hotel while on safari in Zimbabwe. He also played himself in a guest appearance on the children’s program “Under the Umbrella Tree” on the Disney Channel.
Equally eclectic in recording, Parker’s previous recordings for Telarc have included a solo Chopin album, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev Piano Concerti with Andre Previn, and a recent venture into comedy as Peter Schickele’s pianistic sparring partner in the “Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra” by the fabled P.D.Q. Bach. Last spring Telarc released a new recording of Jon Kimura Parker performing the Samuel Barber Piano Concerto with Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony.
On New Year’s Eve, 1995, Parker gave a benefit performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto in war-torn Sarajevo. The concert, sponsored by AmeriCares, was televised live in 59 countries worldwide, and was covered by CNN. In 1996, he received the Canadian Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, presented by the National Arts Centre, joining such distinguished company as Oscar Peterson and Joni Mitchell.
Contact
Lance M. Skelly, Office of Media Relations, 205/348-3782
Source
David Durant, UA coordinator of music services, 205/348-1672