Alice Parker
Alice Parker (1925–2023) was an American composer, arranger, conductor and teacher, best known for choral settings of hymns, spirituals and folk songs that entered the repertoire of choirs worldwide.
Her arrangements of traditional material appear on Move choral recordings, among them the Scots’ Church programme Sing to the Lord, ye Heavenly Hosts (MCD 200), the Christmas collection O Come All Ye Faithful (MD 3053), and folk and spiritual numbers on the male a cappella debut Pablo (MD 3257).
Over a long career she wrote operas, song cycles, cantatas, choral suites and original hymns, and built a body of arrangements—spirituals, hymns and folk songs from several traditions—that choirs still sing.
Compositions by Alice Parker appear on
Pablo
Melbourne a cappella sextet Pablo make their Move debut with pop, folk and spirituals. Close harmony takes in Billy Joel, The Beatles, sea shanties and gospel-tinged arrangements.
O Come All Ye Faithful
A Melbourne choir under Faye Dumont, whose Christmas programme shows variety and finesse as part of its charter.
Sing to the Lord, ye Heavenly Hosts
The Choir of The Scots' Church offers sacred music from sixteenth-century Palestrina to twenty-first-century Australian composer Andrew Batterham, crowned by a rare performance of Widor's Mass for choir, baritone choir and two organs.