Dennis Parker was born in New York City and began his cello studies at the age of six. He received his early training with Channing Robbins of the Juilliard School, and later earned degrees from Indiana University and Yale University, where he worked with Janos Starker and Aldo Parisot, respectively. Inspired by a variety of musical activity, Parker appears frequently as soloist, recitalist, collaborator, and guest professor at universities and festivals worldwide. He is actively involved in the expansion of the existing cello repertoire, and has transcribed many important works for his instrument, including Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola,” K364, and Mozart’s “Concerto No. 5 A Major,” K219, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” and Brahms’s “Sonata for Viola and Piano in E Flat Major,” to name but a few.

CDs released with the Centaur label include “Cello Matters,” which features crossover music for cello and piano by Liduino Pitombeira, Daniel Schnyder, David Baker, and Astor Piazzolla and “Uplifting Discoveries from a Generation Lost,” a recording of chamber music by composers who perished in the Holocaust (Erwin Schulhoff, Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann and Hans Krasa). Other recordings include “Stolen Sonatas,” with pianist Jennifer Hayghe, presenting original transcriptions of Debussy’s “Violin Sonata,” Poulenc’s “Flute Sonata,” and Georges Enesco’s “Sonata No.3 for Violin”; “The Lone Cello,” featuring solo cello works by Scott Howard Eggert, George Crumb, Viktor Kalabis, and György Ligeti; and “Homage To Fiddlers,” with violinist Karen Bentley Pollick and pianist Ivan Sokolov, with Russian and Czech duos and trios by Ivan Sokolov, Viktor Kalabis, and Jan Vičar. Walter Burle Marx includes the composer’s complete works for cello, including his “Cello Concerto,” “Sambatango for Cello and Piano,” “Divertimento a Tre for Flute, Oboe and Cello,” and the “Casanova Fantasy Variations” for Three Celli. In 2003 he recorded  the first complete performance of David Popper’s “High School of Cello Playing” and authored the accompanying manual, “The Popper Manifesto”.

After completing his Bachelor of Music degree, Parker was invited by Maestro Eleazar de Carvalho to become Principal Cellist of the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a position he held from 1982 -84. Upon completion of his work at Yale, he joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a few seasons. Since 1988 Parker has served as a Haymon Professor of Cello and String Chamber Music at the Louisiana State University School of Music, where he continues to host and mentor cellists from across the globe.

When not playing cello, Parker, an avid woodworker and sculptor, creates objects that extend his musical expression and complement the delicate act of performance with the risky business of maneuvering wood through various cutting and shaping devices. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife, artist Jacqueline Dee Parker (www.jacquelinedeeparker) and their oversized Shepherd/Lab, Leda.