LITTLE PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Steven Mazey

Canada.com
October 22, 2008
Canada

Seven concerts, seven cities, seven different pianos, so little time.

That sums up the challenge that Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker
faces when he hits the road with the National Arts Centre Orchestra
Friday for a 20-day tour of Western Canada.

Parker will perform as soloist in seven of the evening concerts
the orchestra is presenting through British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Yukon.

Like conductors Pinchas Zukerman and James Judd, and the orchestra
musicians, Parker will also offer master classes and post-concert
talks.

Parker, 48, says he has to be careful to allow time each day to get
to know the instrument he’ll be playing — a lesson he learned in the
1980s when he walked out on stage in Guelph, Ont., for a concert with
the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, only to find the piano’s pedals on
the floor — not attached to the Steinway. That audience was treated
to the sight of Parker and conductor Raffi Armenian getting down on
their hands and knees to correct the situation.

On hectic tours Parker sometimes finds himself wishing he had chosen
a more portable instrument.

"I’m always desperate for piano time. I’m so envious of violinists,
who can get up in their hotel room in the morning, pull out the violin,
make coffee and practice scales for 15 minutes. I can’t do that so
easily, and it drives me crazy," Parker said recently from Wisconsin,
where he was performing.

"On tour, we often travel on the same day as the concert, so there is a
limited amount of time before the concert that I can actually work at
the piano. Ideally, I like at least a few hours on a concert day, but
on a tour you sometimes don’t get it, so you take what you can get."

Parker says improvement in high-quality electronic keyboards in recent
years has made his life easier when he’s on the road. He sometimes
rents a keyboard from a local music shop. On tours, he asks the
orchestra to provide one he can use in his hotel room so that he can
at least warm up, if not get to know the actual instrument he’ll be
playing that night.

Parker, who will perform with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in
Prince George, B.C., Whitehorse, Kamloops, B.C., Calgary, Regina,
Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Parker will give five master classes, and
take part in a post-concert talk with the audience in Prince George.

"If I perform in a city and haven’t interacted with music students,
I always feel that a bit more could have been made of that trip. Doing
this with the NACO makes me feel I’m a bit more a part of the musical
community."

Jon Kimura Parker’s Canadian Tour Dates:

October 22, Ottawa

October 28, Prince George

October 29, Whitehorse

November 2, Kamloops

November 7, Calgary

November 8, Regina

November 9, Saskatoon

November 10, Winnipeg

December 4, Kitchener