Jon Kimura Parker
“Mr. Parker was an insightful, energetic soloist...the audience roared in approval.”
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Recent appearances include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. A Creative Partner of the Minnesota Orchestra, Jon Kimura Parker regularly frequents the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall as a concert pianist.
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Jon Kimura Parker was named the Minnesota Orchestra’s Creative Partner in 2019, and his contract was recently extended through 2024. Michelle Miller Burns, the Minnesota Orchestra’s President and CEO, shared: “Despite the challenge of confronting a pandemic during his first two years in this role, Jackie has proven to be an extraordinary partner.”
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In addition to his extensive solo and chamber music career, Jon Kimura Parker is a committed educator whose students have won prizes in major competitions internationally, and given concerto performances in the US, Europe, Russia, and China. He has also lectured at The Juilliard School, and given master classes at Yale, while chairing the Hilton Head International Piano Competition jury.
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A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Jon Kimura Parker has performed with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Cho-Liang Lin, Pablo Ziegler, and Sanjaya Malakar. As a founding member of Off the Score, he also performed with Stewart Copeland – the legendary drummer of The Police – for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival’s 20th Anniversary Season, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel, and Stravinsky. In addition, he performs widely throughout North America and Europe with the Montrose Trio (together with violinist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith).
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, infectious enthusiasm, and dynamic performances that communicate the joy of musical expression. A veteran of the international concert stage, he has performed in the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall. He is Creative Partner for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer at Orchestra Hall, serves as the Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition and Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and chairs the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
In recent concert seasons, Jon Kimura Parker has been conducted by Karina Canellakis, Karen Kamensek, Mei-Ann Chen, Stephanie Childress, and Lina Gonzalez-Granados. A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Jon Kimura Parker has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin, Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham and Lynn Harrell, and also with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Shayne Koyczan, and Dessa. He has toured as a founding member of the Montrose Trio, and in Off the Score with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
Highlights of his 2024-25 season include Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and appearances on recital, chamber music and orchestra series across North America and Europe. Parker’s discography features music ranging from Chopin to John Adams. His Whole Notes television series is available on Amazon Prime Video, and his recent Tonebase video on the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini has over 500K views.
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Jon Kimura Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School. After winning the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker has gone on to become an Officer of the Order of Canada and to receive Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
Known to friends as “Jackie,” Parker is married to violinist/violist Aloysia Friedmann, and their daughter Sophie is an artist.
For further information, please visit www.jonkimuraparker.com.
August 2024 - Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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Samuel Barber:
Piano Concerto, Op. 38Ludwig van Beethoven:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Emperor”
Choral Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80
Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56Leonard Bernstein:
Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety”Johannes Brahms:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83George Gershwin:
Piano Concerto in F major
“I Got Rhythm” Variations
Rhapsody in BlueEdvard Grieg:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16Witold Lutosławski:
Variations on a Theme by PaganiniFelix Mendelssohn:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25
Double Concerto for Piano and Violin in D minor, MWV O4Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467Florence Price:
Piano Concerto in One MovementSergei Prokofiev:
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26Sergei Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniMaurice Ravel:
Piano Concerto in G majorRobert Schumann:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54Dmitri Shostakovich:
Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 35Schubert/Lizst:
“Wanderer” Fantasy in C major, Op. 15Pyotr Tchaikovsky:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 -
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, “Moonlight”
Maurice Ravel: Jeux d’Eau
Franz Schubert: Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 “Wanderer Fantasy”
*****
Franz Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
Americana!
- Chick Corea: “Got a Match?”
- Alexina Louie: “Memories in an Ancient Garden”
- Oscar Peterson: “Blues Etude”
- John Adams: “China Gates”
- Harold Arlen arr. William Hirtz: “Wizard of Oz” Fantasy
Projects
