Jamie Parker


Region: Toronto Ontario
Generation:
Born 1963, British Columbia

Bio

Jamie Parker is a concert pianist with an extensive career both as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles, including the renowned Gryphon Trio. Born in British Columbia, he studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, and continued on to The Juilliard School. He is now a teacher himself, holding the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance on the music faculty at the University of Toronto.

As a young performer, Parker won over 200 first-place awards in music festivals, including the prestigious 1981 National Competitive Festival of Music. That same year, he made his orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic, and has gone on to play with every major orchestra in Canada. He has toured Canada extensively, and frequently performed on CBC radio and television, as well as making recordings which have won him three Juno awards and many more nominations.

He has been called ‘one of the most searching musical intellects and 10 of the nimblest fingers in the business’ by the Globe and Mail, and has also performed internationally for prestigious audiences in the United States and Europe, such as when he was the first pianist to play in the Canadian Embassy concert series in Washington, DC.