Steven Parker, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Instruction, Trombone, New Media, and Coordinator of Music Marketing, Music
Bio
Dr. Steve Parker works broadly as a trombonist, composer, visual artist, and curator. He is the recipient of the Rome Prize, the Tito’s Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a 2023 McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum.
Parker’s projects include elaborate civic rituals for humans, animals, and machines; listening sculptures modeled after obsolete surveillance tools; and cathartic transportation symphonies for operators of cars, pedicabs, and bicycles. Exhibition and performance highlights include the American Academy in Rome (Italy), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Arkansas), CUE Art Foundation (New York), the Fusebox Festival (Texas), Gwangju Media Art Festival (Korea), the Guggenheim Museum, the Lincoln Center Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic inSIGHT, the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), MASS MoCA (Massachusetts), the McNay Art Museum (Texas), Rich Mix (London), SXSW, and Tanglewood (Massachusetts).
As a concert soloist and as trombonist of NYC-based "new music dream team" Ensemble Signal, he has premiered 200+ new works. Solo highlights include a concerto premiere with Ensemble Dal Niente at the University of Chicago, Columbia University's Miller Theatre (NYC), Future Places (Portugal), and the Spoleto Festival. Ensemble highlights include appearances with Pierre Boulez, Deviant Septet, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Malaysian Philharmonic, and Spoleto Festival Orchestra.
Parker’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Colossal, and Design Milk, among others. He is curator of SoundSpace at the Blanton Museum of Art, Executive Director of Collide Arts, and a faculty member at UTSA. He holds degrees in Math and Music from Oberlin, Rice, and UT Austin. His teachers include Dr. Nathaniel Brickens, Michael Mulcahy, Abbie Conant, Mike Svoboda, Dave Waters, Robin Eubanks, James DeSano, Arnold Jacobs, and Raymond Premru.
Teaching
Courses:
- Trombone lessons
- Trombone Choir
- New Music Ensemble
- New Media
- Sound Art
- Music Business
- Music Marketing
Degrees
- B.A. in Mathematics, Oberlin College
- B.M. in Music Performance, Oberlin College
- M.M. in Music Performance, Rice University
- D.M.A. in Music Performance, The University of Texas at Austin
