Jon Kimura Parker
piano, harpsichord
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, enthusiasm, and dynamic performances. A veteran of the international concert stage, he has performed regularly in New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall. He serves as the Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary and Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Parker is Professor of Piano and the Keyboard Chair at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His students have performed extensively and won prizes in major international competitions. In recent years, they have given concerto performances of Shostakovich, Beethoven, Khachaturian, and Prokofiev in Aspen, San Antonio, Houston, and China, and have performed at La Jolla Summerfest and in Young Artist programs at da Camera Houston, ROCO, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Highlights of Mr. Parker’s recent seasons featured concerto appearances with over a dozen orchestras, including a last-minute substitution for pianist Yuja Wang at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program honoring conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. There he performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to an instant standing ovation, a work he also performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. He also performed Gershwin’s Concerto in F in Italy, appeared at Rancho La Puerta in Mexico and Emory University with Aloysia Friedmann, and toured the U.S. with WindSync and the Viano Quartet.
A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Mr. Parker has performed with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Pablo Ziegler, and Sanjaya Malakar. As a founding member of Off the Score, he 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. He has accompanied Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, and Luca Pisaroni in recital, and in 2023 he made a special guest appearance with the rapper Dessa. He also toured for ten years as a founding member of the Montrose Trio.
Mr. Parker’s discography of a dozen albums features music ranging from Mozart and Chopin to Barber, Stravinsky, and John Adams. His YouTube channel features a series of Concerto Chat videos, which explore the piano concerto repertoire. In addition, his Whole Notes series, featuring performances of great composers, is available on Amazon Prime Video. He is now recording masterclass videos for tonebase on major works of the piano concerto repertoire. His tonebase video on the 15th Variation of the Rachmaninoff-Paganini Rhapsody has been viewed over a half-million times.
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. Winner of the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, he has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. Mr. Parker is also an Officer of The Order of Canada.
Known to friends new and old as “Jackie,” Mr. Parker is married to violinist/violist Aloysia Friedmann, and their daughter, Sophie, graduated from Rice University in 2021. For further information, please visit jonkimuraparker.com, minnesotaorchestra.org, oicmf.org, and honens.com.
