Alice Parker

Alice Parker was an internationally renowned composer, conductor, and teacher who studied composition and conducting at Smith College and the Juilliard School, where she began her long association with Robert Shaw. The many Parker/Shaw settings of American folksongs, hymns, and spirituals from that period form an enduring repertoire for choruses worldwide.

Her list of published compositions includes over five hundred titles, ranging from operas through song cycles, cantatas, and choral suites to many individual anthems.

In 1985, she founded MELODIOUS ACCORD, INC., and focused her activities on the heart of vocal music: the melody. Parker published books on melodic styles, choral improvisation, and church music. <i>The Melodious Accord Hymnal</i> (2010) contains brief versions of many American folk hymns, as well as her own settings of contemporary poets. The second edition of her classic essays on song leading and congregational singing, <i>Melodious Accord: Good Singing in Church</i>, appeared in 2013.

Alice Parker has served on the Board of Directors of Chorus America and was named their first Director Laureate. In 2013, she received the Robert Shaw Award from the American Choral Directors Association and, in 2015, the Harvard Glee Club Foundation Medal. Named Distinguished Composer of the Year 2000 by the American Guild of Organists, she was also a Fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. She was the recipient of six honorary doctorates and the Smith College Medal, as well as grants from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the American Music Center.

For more information, please consult the website www.melodiousaccord.org.