The extraordinary career of internationally acclaimed concert pianist Jon Kimura Parker has taken him from Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Festival Hall to Baffin Island and Zimbabwe. A true Canadian ambassador of music, Mr. Parker has given two command performances for Queen Elizabeth II, special performances for the United States Supreme Court, and has performed for the Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan. He is an Officer of The Order of Canada, this country’s highest civilian honour.

Jon Kimura Parker has a long history with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In the 2008-09 season, he becomes the NAC Orchestra’s first artist-in-residence appearing in concert and in recital, and playing an integral role in education outreach. He is participating in the 2008 Western Canada Tour and the NAC’s 2009 BC Scene festival. Parker’s first NAC appearance was in recital on the NAC-CBC Debut Series for young rising stars in 1984, and he made his NAC Orchestra debut the following year. He has performed with the NAC Orchestra on numerous occasions since, including the Orchestra’s 1998 Northern Ontario and Western Canada Tour, and the 1996 Eastern U.S. Tour. Parker also hosted the classical music television series Whole Notes on Bravo Canada, the first series of which featured the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Pinchas Zukerman in 1999.

In recent seasons, Jon Kimura Parker has performed as guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the NHK Tokyo Orchestra, and with major orchestra in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal, San Diego, Salt Lake City and Toronto.

Recent summer orchestral festival appearances have included the Hollywood Bowl, Minnesota Sommerfest, Mainly Mozart, Sun Valley and Vail, as well as chamber music festivals in Amelia Island, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Seattle, Steamboat Springs and Orcas Island. Jon Kimura Parker also collaborates regularly with the Tokyo Quartet and Lynn Harrell. An unusually versatile artist, Mr. Parker has jammed with Doc Severinsen in Calgary and Bobby McFerrin in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and has performed with Audra McDonald and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As a member of the outreach project “PianoPlus”, Mr. Parker toured remote areas including the Canadian Arctic, performing classical music and rock ‘n’ roll on everything from upright pianos to electronic keyboards.

An active media personality, Mr. Parker hosted CBC Radio Two’s five-part series Up And Coming, showcasing young musicians, as well as hosting the aforementioned classical music television series Whole Notes, on Bravo! Canada. He has played himself in a guest appearance on the Disney Channel’s Under the Umbrella Tree. Mr. Parker was also seen on CNN performing in war-torn Sarajevo, and documented on PBS’s The Visionaries.

A committed educator, Jon Kimura Parker is Professor of Piano at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. His former student Jade Simmons was recently named the first New Music/New Places Fellow by New York’s Concert Artists Guild. Mr. Parker is the E. Stephen Purdom Distinguished Visiting Artist at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, as well as Honorary Co-Chair of the Piano Pedagogy Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. Mr. Parker has given master classes and lectures at The Juilliard School, The Steans Institute, and Yale University. Jon Kimura Parker is also the Artistic Advisor of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.

“Jackie” Parker received all of his early education in Canada, training with his uncle, Edward Parker and his mother, Keiko Parker. He studied with Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at The Banff Centre, and with renowned pedagogue Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where he received his doctorate. He won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition.

Mr. Parker has recorded for Telarc with Yoel Levi, André Previn and Peter Schickele. He was born, raised and educated in Vancouver. He lives in Houston with his wife, violinist Aloysia Friedmann and their daughter Sophie. For further information, please see www.kimura.com and www.oicmf.org.