FOR RELEASE
9 AM EDT, May 20, 2000

AMERICAN CHORAL LEGEND ALICE PARKER HONORED ON THE OCCASION OF HER 75TH BIRTHDAY YEAR AT CHORUS AMERICA CONFERENCE IN BALTIMORE ON JUNE 10TH

New York, NY, --Alice Parker of Hawley, Mass. and internationally recognized composer, conductor and educator, is being honored by Chorus America at its annual conference this year for her outstanding contributions to choral music. The conference, culminating in a tribute honoring Parker on June 10th, will be held from June 7 through June 10 at the Holiday Inn-Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland.

Alice Parker began her composition career in 1948, and since that time has composed over 700 works. From her legendary collaboration with Robert Shaw came hundreds of arrangements of folk materials. For the past 40 years, her compositions have included songs, anthems, cantatas, operas and instrumental works. Alice Parker’s published work has been performed by generations of professional and amateur singers alike. She has conducted thousands of seminars, workshops, clinics and sings for community groups, professional conferences, schools, colleges and religious organizations. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Hamilton College, Bluffton College, Macalester College and Westminster Choir College. Chorus America has listed her as one of the most important and widely recognized composers of choral music of the 20th century.

Chorus America is the national service organization that promotes the highest artistic quality, development and growth of vocal ensembles, advocates the fair remuneration of professional singers and choruses that provide professional services and stimulates greater understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of choral music throughout North America. In the 21 years since it was founded, Chorus America’s organizational membership has grown to 550 member choruses, and an equal number of individuals and corporate members.

In addition to the Chorus America Award this June, Ms. Parker will receive the Distinguished Composer Award from the American Guild of Organists in July. She will also be honored by the Hymn Society of America at its annual conference in Boston also in July.

Earlier this year, Melodious Accord, Inc., a New York-based not-for-profit chorus and choral advocacy organization was awarded a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the Alice Parker Recording Project’Äîa series of compact discs of Parker’s work recorded by the professional chorus, The Musicians of Melodious Accord, under Parker’s own direction. "The fact the NEA has endorsed this project is a testament to the life and work of Alice Parker, who is the grande dame of American song," says Melodious Accord, Inc. Chairman Timothy Riley.

Two other engagements this summer include Alice Parker conducting her compositions at the Innsbruck International Choral Festival in Innsbruck, Austria, and being a featured presenter at the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors in Edmonton, Allberta.

To quote from a letter to Chorus America in 1994, the late Robert Shaw said, "What with vocal lines and positions so native to the human instrument, and texts in themselves so satisfying or inspiring, Alice’s music simply is a joy to perform. It makes people happy; about themselves and their neighbors, about the eventual human condition...."