“Up Close with Andrew Parker" at the Figge Art Museum -- January 8.
Saturday, January 8, 7:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
An intimate evening of classical music will be hosted by the Figge Art Museum on January 8, with the Davenport venue presenting the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's principal oboe player in Up Close with Andrew Parker, a night of lilting and energetic compositions with Parker accompanied on piano by frequent QCSO guest performer Marian Lee.
Beyond his tenure with the QCSO and his considerable experience as a music instructor, Parker maintains a rich career as an orchestral musician, soloist, and chamber player. He has appeared as a guest soloist with the Great Falls Symphony, the Puerto Rico Philharmonic, and the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, and has also played in many orchestras in North America, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra; the Florida Orchestra; the Fort Wayne Philharmonic; and the symphony orchestras of Richmond, Ann Arbor, Flint, New Mexico, Santa Fe, and Plymouth. Parker has also worked with numerous acclaimed conductors in addition to the QCSO's Mark Russell Smith, among them Nicholas McGegan, Yuri Tamirkanov, Robert Spano, Manfred Honeck, Marin Alsop, JoAnn Falletta, David Robertson, Michael Stern, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman, Leonard Slatkin, Guillermo Figueroa, Stefan Sanderling, Jahja Ling, James Gaffigan, and Larry Rachleff.
Parker attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music and received his master's degree from the Yale School of Music, and spent three years as the oboe TA at the University of Michigan. As the artist states on his Web site DrAndrewParkerOboe.com: “My whole philosophy is to work hard in a healthy way and cultivate the courage to put myself out there. I never assume that I will get the job. I just work as hard as I can. I have taken, many auditions that I did not win. I was rejected several times, but never let it stop me. I never let the rejection negatively influence my love for the process. After each 'no' I would ask myself 'How can I do better next time?' I would go back to the hotel room after an audition and immediately start practicing!”
Accompanying Parker on piano, Lee is an Assistant Professor of Piano at St. Ambrose University who received her Doctor of Musical Arts at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. She made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as the 1995 winner of the Artist International Award, and went on to serve as a soloist and chamber performer in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Russia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, as well as in major cities throughout the United States. Lee has made numerous appearances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and performed an exclusive recital in the Hermitage Theater at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, and also played piano in a nationally televised broadcast from Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. Additionally, Lee helped develop Moscow Nights, a first-time collaboration between the music and Russian-language departments at the University of Delaware, and served as president of the Delaware Music Teachers Association.
Performing an intimate evening of music at the Figge, Parker's and Lee's January 8 concert opens with Alyssa Morris’ Four Personalities based on the colors used by the Hartman Personality Test, followed by Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Oboe & Piano, written in memory of Sergei Prokofiev. The recital's second half will open with Marina Dranishnikova’s melodic and somber Poem. And Parker's program finally concludes with Sigismund Toduță’s sparkling Sonata for Oboe & Piano.
Up Close with Andrew Parker will be presented at the Figge Art Museum on January 8 at 7:30 p.m., with admission $10-25, and a live-stream presentation of the recital will also be available, with the $25 digital access allowing for viewing 30 days following the live-stream. For more information and tickets, call (563)322-0931 and visit QCSO.org.
