ATU professor places second in international composition contest

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

RUSSELLVILLE — Philip

Parker, associate professor of

music at Arkansas Tech Uni

versity, won second prize in the

2009 College Orchestra Direc

tors Association International

Composition Contest at Baylor

University in Waco, Texas.

Parker’s work, titled Joyeuse,

was named by a panel of five judg

es as the second-best entry among

composers at more than 120 Col

lege Orchestra Directors Associa

tion member institutions.

It is Parker’s second major

composition award this year.

Last spring, the National Sym

phony Orchestra selected Parker

to compose a piece that it will

perform at the John F. KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Parker was one of just three composers selected by the National Symphony Orchestra this year as part of its American Residency program.

Parker has served on the Arkansas Tech music faculty since 1977. His past honors include the Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship for outstanding achievement in composition, two awards for composition from the National Flute Association and the Arkansas Tech Faculty Award of Excellence in the scholarship category.

A graduate of Wichita State University and Indiana University, Parker teaches applied percussion, music history, music theory and composition at Arkansas Tech.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 163 on 11/01/2009