Parker, Alice
Alice Parker, internationally renowned composer, conductor, and teacher, studied composition and conducting at Smith College and the Juilliard School, where she began her long association with Robert Shaw. The many Parker-Shaw settings of American folk songs, hymns, and spirituals from that period form an enduring repertoire for choruses all around the world.
Her list of published compositions numbers over six hundred, ranging from operas, song cycles, cantatas, and choral suites to many individual anthems. She was commissioned by hundreds of community, school, and church choruses, and her works appear in the catalogs of a dozen publishing companies. For many years she toured the United States and Canada, leading performances and workshops on improvisation, rehearsal techniques, and score study. To take part in one of her SINGS was to have a rare experience of group singing and improvisation.
In 1985, with the founding of Melodious Accord, Inc., she focused her activities on the heart of vocal music: the melody. The musicians of Melodious Accord, a sixteen-voice professional chorus, released fourteen albums. Through the Melodious Accord Fellowship Program, mid-career professional musicians were brought together for inspiration and refreshment in their teaching, composing, and conducting under her mentorship.
Parker published books on melodic styles, choral improvisation, and church music. The Anatomy of Melody (2006) and The Answering Voice (2014) set forth her views on composition, and Sharing the Song (2026), a concise guide to the art of communal singing, concludes this trilogy devoted to her philosophy of music. The Melodious Accord Hymnal (2010) contains brief versions of many American folk hymns, as well as her own settings of contemporary poets. The second edition of her classic essays on song leading and congregational singing, Melodious Accord: Good Singing in Church, appeared in 2013.
Alice Parker served on the board of directors of Chorus America and was named their first Director Laureate. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association as well as the Harvard Glee Club Medal, and was named a lifetime member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. She was named Distinguished Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists, and in 2013 received the Robert Shaw Award from the American Choral Directors Association. She was also a fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, recipient of six honorary doctorates and the Smith College Medal, and received grants from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the American Music Center.
Over a career that spanned more than seventy years, Alice Parker gifted choral musicians with a wide range of creative output that embraced composing, conducting, and teaching. Her training at Smith College and Juilliard, her collaborations with Robert Shaw, and her life well and fully lived resulted in a body of work that encompasses hundreds of songs rich in history and beautiful melodies. Alice was a generous mentor with a keen and articulate teaching style, and her use of song as a way to build community was a delight to all who experienced her creative presence. Learn more at www.melodiousaccord.org.