Parkers Win Grammy

NEC-trained Parker Quartet Wins Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance for Recording of Ligeti String Quartets

Parkers Completed NEC’s Professional String Quartet Training Program in 2008, Has Won Numerous Competitions, Awards

Saxophonist Wayne Escoffery ’99 TMIJP, ’00 M.M. Shares in Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album Grammy

The NEC-trained Parker Quartet (Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violinists; Jessica Bodner, violist; and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello) have won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance by the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences.  The ensemble, which received the award at the Grammy ceremonies Feb. 13, was recognized for its recording of the Ligeti String Quartets No. 1 and 2/ Andante and Allegretto.

Saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, who studied in NEC’s Thelonious Monk Institute and then got a Master’s in jazz performance, shared in the Grammy honors for Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard, which won as the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

Formed in 2002 at NEC, the Parker Quartet received both its undergraduate and graduate training at the Conservatory, culminating in its selection in 2006 to the prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program directed by Paul Katz.  The quartet has been the recipient of numerous honors, winning the Concert Artists Guild and Bordeaux International String Quartet Competitions in 2005. In 2008, they were named the winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America (an award named after the ensemble in which mentor Paul Katz was a founding member). They were also the first ensemble chosen to be Quartet-in-Residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Artists-in-Residence with Classical Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media.

The Parkers’ Ligeti CD, on the Naxos label, is only their second recording.

For further information, check the NEC Website

Photo by Janette Beckman

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 106-year old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.Pfeifer@necmusic.edu