Biography
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, enthusiasm, and dynamic performances. A veteran of the international concert stage, he has performed regularly in the Berlin Philharmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall. He is the Creative Partner of the Minnesota Orchestra, having hosted and given multiple concerto performances with them since 2020, and serves as the Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary and Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.
Dr. Parker is Professor of Piano and Keyboard Chair at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His students have performed extensively and won prizes in major competitions internationally. In recent years, they have given recital and concerto performances in New York, Aspen, San Antonio, Houston, Beijing and Amsterdam, performed at La Jolla Summerfest, and have been Young Artists for da Camera Houston, ROCO, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His former students also currently hold positions at the universities of Syracuse, Salt Lake City, and Houston, as well as at M.I.T., The Shepherd School of Music and The Juilliard School.
In the past two seasons, Jon Kimura Parker has been conducted by Karina Canellakis, Karen Kamensek, Mei-Ann Chen, Stephanie Childress, and Lina Gonzalez-Granados. A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Jon Kimura Parker has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin, Lynn Harrell, Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham and Luca Pisaroni, and also with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Shayne Koyczan, and Dessa. He has toured as a founding member of the Montrose Trio, and in Off the Score with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
Highlights of his 2024-25 season included concerto performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, as well as with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall, and appearances on recital, chamber music and orchestra series across North America and Europe. In the 2025-26 season he performs in Toronto, Seattle, Paris, and Singapore, and appears with Chelsea de Souza in the Houston Music Festival. Parker’s discography features music ranging from Chopin to John Adams. His Whole Notes television series is available on Amazon Prime Video, and his recent Tonebase video on the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini has over 500K views.
Jon Kimura Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School. Winner of the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker was invested as an Officer of The Order of Canada in 1999 for his artistic service to Canada and worldwide, and has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
Known to his friends as “Jackie,” Parker is married to violinist/violist Aloysia Friedmann, and their daughter Sophie is an artist. For further information, please visit jonkimuraparker.com.
