A Year of Many Successes (and One Major Life Change) for Composer Robert Parker
Karen Kahler
January 15, 2008
In February, he wrote and recorded a minimalist orchestral work for a new experimental play opening in Los Angeles.
In March, his Antigone was featured at Echo Chamber, a Los Angeles arts and performance event "celebrating art inspired by art," and a commissioned suite for solo cello and chorus had its world premiere in the United Kingdom.
In April, he learned he had multiple sclerosis.
Parker, then 46 years old, took the diagnosis in stride. "You live long enough, sooner or later it´s going to be something," he says with a wry smile.
Symptoms such as fatigue, leg pain and numbness, and difficulty walking have made the Pasadena-based composer slow down and prioritize. "If there´s one lesson this disease teaches you," he says, "it´s how to focus on the things that matter."
Parker has had to find room in an already busy life for a host of regular doctors´ appointments. On any given week, he may see a neurologist or other Western medical specialist, an acupuncturist, a traditional Chinese herbalist, or a qigong practitioner.
"The herbs and the qigong treatments help with the discomfort, numbness, and hot-and-cold sensations," he says, "and the acupuncture does a lot to keep me on an even keel emotionally." He has also done Alexander work and yoga to improve mobility, coordination, and balance.
"Oddly enough, in many ways—aside from the leg weirdness—I´m feeling better than I ever have," he says.
"I´m still able to walk, still able to drive, still able to create. It´s hard to look at this as even a minor tragedy. It is, however, a colossal pain in the…well, in my case, legs."
A longtime teacher and director of technology at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, Parker is especially grateful for the summer vacations his job as an educator provides. "Now more than ever," he says, "it´s good to have that opportunity to recharge."
Before last summer´s much-needed respite, Parker performed in May with the California Chamber Singers, playing organ for the Fauré Requiem and timpani for his own Hail, Gladsome Light, a work for chorus, organ, and orchestra that had its premiere at the concert.
"That was a long, hard day," he admits, "but I couldn´t miss it. It was D.B.´s [conductor Dr. Larry K. Ball´s] final Chamber Singers concert before retirement, and he´s been a wonderful colleague, mentor, and friend."
Parker ended the school year with a decades-old Flintridge Prep musical tradition. In June 1972, when Parker was a sixth grader at the school, he assumed the mantle of commencement organist. Since then, he has played at every commencement. Last year marked his thirty-fifth ceremony.
When the festivities moved several years ago from campus to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Parker was thrilled. "The Moller organ at the Pasadena Civic is one of the world´s most famous theater organs," he says. "Back in the heyday of theater organs, it toured the U.S. in five vans. It´s a delight every time I get to sit at the console."
Parker becomes pensive when he contemplates Flintridge Prep´s commencement tradition and the progress of his illness. "I´ve been a professional organist since I was thirteen. I can cope with the idea that I might not be able to walk one of these days. The thought of not being able to sit down at an organ and play the pedalboard is what gives me pause."
While Parker spent the summer recuperating and learning more about how to live with MS, his music remained hard at work. In June, his Widow´s Walk went to Germany as part of "60x60: The Munich Mix," a concert exploring the themes of oppression and totalitarianism. Presented by Vox Novus as part of the A*Devantgarde Festival for New Music, "60x60" was a unique, sixty-minute concert of sixty electronic compositions, each written by a different composer and lasting sixty seconds.
The summer also saw the release of Parker´s fourth album, When In Our Music God Is Glorified. A compilation of sacred music performed under the baton of Dr. Ball, the album includes several of Parker´s hymn arrangements as well as his compositions for brass and organ and works for full orchestra and chorus.
Summer´s end meant the beginning of another school year. It wasn´t easy for Parker. "I have a fantastic job, I love teaching, and (strange as it may sound) working with teenagers is the least stressful part of my day. But keeping up with the kids does take a lot of energy. It gets frustrating, wanting to come home and compose like I used to but being too fatigued to do more than sleep in my recliner in front of the TV."
Still, fatigue and frustration didn´t stop him from creating a suite of incidental music for a critically acclaimed production of The Crucible, staged by Orange County´s Rude Guerrilla Theater Company in October. That same month, Illinois Central College named Parker the winner of a national competition to compose a tune for Ancora Imparo, the school´s alma mater.
In November, Parker traveled to Salt Lake City for the College Music Society´s fiftieth national conference, where he presented a paper on continuo in Mozart´s Requiem. While in town, he got an unexpected treat: what he thought was going to be a personal tour of the pipe organs at Temple Square turned into an opportunity to play the Tabernacle organ.
"I´ve been listening to recordings of this instrument since I was a kid," he says, "and suddenly I get to play it. And this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes when I´m still on my feet, and still able to play it. It was exactly what I needed, and it came at the perfect time."
On the heels of his Utah trip came the East Coast premiere of Parker´s Fanfare and Cortège at Yale University, his alma mater. The composition for concert band and organ was featured in the Yale Concert Band´s final performance of 2007, along with works by Milhaud, Maslanka, Gillis, and Takemitsu.
Dr. Thomas C. Duffy, director of the Yale Concert Band, had high praise for Parker and his work. Calling Fanfare and Cortège "a beautiful, well-crafted mini-tone poem" that "creates a sound-world of royal pomp, reserved celebration, and nostalgia," Duffy hailed Parker as "a modern-day Ralph Vaughan Williams—a master of the tune and the beautiful harmony around it."
Parker is currently working on another project for the Yale Concert Band, as well as some soundtracks for an animator in Canada and a composition for orchestra and chorus to be performed at Flintridge Prep later this year.
"I plan to keep teaching, composing, and performing music as long as I can. I respect the lessons MS has to teach me, and I have to stay open to them. But I´m not going to let the disease win."
Robert Parker´s albums are available through CDBaby.com and iTunes. For more information about the composer, visit www.robertparkermusic.com.
Photo by William Parker
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