Alice Parker and Donald Neuen
Composer, conductor, arranger and
teacher
Alice Parker
was born in Boston, MA in 1925. She graduated from Smith
College with a major in music performance and composition,
then received her master's degree from the Juilliard School,
where she studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw. Her
arrangements with Robert Shaw of folksongs, hymns and
spirituals form an enduring repertoire for choruses all
around the world.
She began composing early, and wrote her first orchestral score while still in high school. She continues composing in many forms, from operas to cantata, sacred anthems to secular dances, song cycles to string quartets.
Robert Shaw said of Parker that "...she possesses a rare and creative musical intelligence." Donald Neuen extended that by saying, "Alice Parker's choral arranging is sheer genius and stands alone as the finest in American choral history."
Works to be Performed
Ms. Parker composed SongStream, setting nine romantic poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay for chorus and piano, taking her inspiration from Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes.
In addition to this 20-minute work, you will be rehearsing and performing six well-loved arrangements which she did for Robert Shaw.
Three Irish songs:
The Girl I Left Behind Me
Johnnie, I Hardly Knew Ye
My Gentle Harp
Three spirituals:
Ride on, King Jesus
I Got Shoes
My God is a Rock.
All scores and a practice CD will be mailed to you when you register.
Donald Neuen is Professor of Choral Conducting at UCLA, Director of the internationally-televised Crystal Cathedral Choir and Artistic Director of the Angeles Chorale.
Prior to Neuen's 14 years in Los Angeles he was on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music for 12 years. He is known for his musical sensitivity and meticulous attention to phrasing and diction. He is one of the most renowned teachers of choral technique in the US today. Musicologist Julius Herford, teacher of Leonard Bernstein and Robert Shaw among many others, called Neuen "the great conductor of his generation." Neuen served as Shaw's Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Choruses.
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