Concert: Alice Parker October 8, 2005

Alice Parker, one of the nation?s premier choral composers, will present the Christopher U. Light Lectureship in Music on Thursday, Oct. 6, at noon at Carleton?s Music Hall, Room 103. Parker also will present the Lectureship Concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8, in the Carleton College Concert Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

The concert program includes performances by Carleton faculty as well as choral and orchestral ensembles. Selections will be from Parker?s works including traditional Lutheran hymns, musical settings of the poetry of Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, a song cycle based on traditional New England shape note hymns, a collection of international songs and an assortment of African American spirituals.

Parker?s career started almost six decades ago when Parker composed her first piece at the age of five. She has focused on the creation of every type of melodious work for both professional musicians and amateur choirs. After studying at Smith College and The Julliard School, Parker began composing arrangements of folksongs, hymns, spirituals and other forms of traditional American music, often in collaboration with the late Robert Shaw. Since her first foray into the world of choral composing, Parker has written operas, cantatas, anthems and musical settings for poetic works.

In 1985, Parker started her own sixteen member chorus, Melodious Accord. The group performs a concert series each year in New York City and has released multiple studio albums. Melodious Accord also has presented symposia, supported the efforts of emerging composers and supported a network of musicians through their newsletter.

Parker conducts workshops and concerts around the world in which all participants use their undiscovered vocal talents to make music. She also serves on the board of Chorus America. She has been awarded four honorary doctorates and the Smith College Medal, as well as grants from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Music Center.

Carleton?s Christopher U. Light Lectureship in Music was created in 1985 by Light, a member of the Carleton class of 1958 and a freelance writer, composer, record producer and musician. Past lectureships have been given by prominent musicians including Malcom Bilson, the Kronos Quartet, Philip Rhodes and Gary Hines and The Sounds of Blackness.

The Carleton College Concert Hall has limited disability accessibility. For more information or disability accommodations, call the Carleton music department at (507) 646-4347.