Katharine Parker

Katharine "Kitty" Parker (aka Catherine Parker ; born March 28, 1886 in Cressy near Launceston , Tasmania , † March 28, 1971 in Darlinghurst ) was an Australian pianist and composer.

The daughter of a sheep farmer studied music at the Conservatory of Melbourne University from 1904 to 1906 , from which she graduated with a diploma. In 1907 she won a gold medal as a solo pianist at the Australian Exhibition of Women's Work . After a farewell concert in Launceston, she went to England in 1909 to continue her education with Percy Grainger , who considered her the most talented piano student he had ever had.

Through Grainger she met the singer Hubert Eisdell , whom she married in 1910. The following year she gave her debut concert as a piano soloist in London. In 1912 their son Michael was born, who became known as a broadcaster. In 1920 she went on a tour of Australia with her husband, during which he also sang two songs she had composed.

In 1930 the couple separated. Eisdell went to Canada while Parker stayed in England. As a piano accompanist for Dora Labbette and Dino Borgioli, she made tours to Las Pamas and Tenerife in 1935 and to Berlin from 1936–37. During the Second World War she worked as an ambulance driver. In 1947 she returned to Australia, where she lived in Sydney and Melbourne and worked for radio. In 1950 she took a position at the Launceston radio station and began working as a piano teacher. From 1960 onwards she spent the last years of her life with her sister Reike Parker in Sydney, who was also a musician.

Parker's little extensive compositional work consists mainly of songs (including the Six Songs and the cycle The light of the lotus ), the first of which appeared in 1913. Her most important piano works were the Four Musical Sketches (1928). Her best-known composition Down Longford Way , orchestrated by Percy Grainger in 1935 , also belonged to this cycle . A selection of her works were recorded on CD in 2004 by Jane Edwards and Ian Munro .

swell

• Australian Dictionary of Biography - Parker, Katharine (Kitty)
• Katharine Parker (1886–1971) Tasmanian pianist & composer
• Katharine Parker (1886–1971) Tasmanian composer (with catalog raisonné)
• MusicWeb International - Katharine Parker (1886–1971) - Down Longford Way

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeanell Carrigan: Rediscovering Australian women composers of piano music . In: Resonate Magazine . May 31, 2016, OCLC 225669389 (English, com.au [accessed on 8 December 2018]).
2. ↑ Margaret Glover: Parker, Katharine (Kitty) (1886–1971) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).