About
Van Parker enjoys a dynamic career as a highly sought-after orchestral and chamber musician, soloist, conductor, recording artist, new music collaborator, and music educator. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, they have been featured as a recitalist throughout the Great Lakes region and perform frequently with the Akron, Ashland, Firelands, Lima, Mansfield, and Youngstown Symphonies, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and Cleveland Opera Theater.
Parker is an advocate for the works of living composers and has participated in premieres of works by Eric Whitacre, Lewis Nielsen, John Wineglass, Michael Shirtz, Jeff Scott, Buck McDaniel, and Deborah Phelps, from whom he commissioned the piece "Cui Bono," a duet for horn and violin. They are also a frequent performer on historical instruments as a member of Orchestra19, an ensemble dedicated to period performance of 19th century music, and as a member of the Evelyn Dunbar Early Music Festival, for which they have performed Niccolo Piccini’s 18th century opera, La Buona Figliuola.This performance marked the opera’s first fully-staged presentation in the United States using period instruments, pitch, and tuning. Parker has toured internationally with Ensemble du Monde and is a member of New York's Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra. They have also served as principal horn of the Charleston, South Carolina-based Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, a unique ensemble showcasing the talents of black musicians from around the world.
A dedicated and skilled educator who has guided students through successful auditions for the Cincinnati Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and several other elite institutions, Parker is on faculty at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, and Cleveland’s Music Settlement, and has served as a brass coach for the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, and Kaboom Collective, in addition to being an assistant director of the All-Ohio State Fair Band. They received their M.M. from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and their B.M. from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
