Ms. Linda Parr

LINDA PARR grew up in Northeast Ohio and earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from Kent State University. Additional piano study was at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria. Teachers have included Violet Todd, Frederic Schoettler, Noel Flores and Tung Kwong-Kwong.

A duo-pianist with husband Andrew Parr, Mrs. Parr has also been active as an accompanist for vocal and instrumental recitals and has played in master classes of Josef Gingold, Yo-Yo Ma and Gerard Souzay,. She served as a chamber pianist for the Cleveland Orchestra’s summer Blossom Music Festival at Kent State University and performed in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Washington, D. C., and New York City for the Si-Yo Young Artists Series. At the Cleveland Institute of Music in a performance of the Dvorak Piano Quintet, music critic Robert Finn wrote of her playing "…the performance took on a colorful and brilliant cast. Tempos were swift as can be… Parr was again an assertive pianist, making her colleagues work to match her sound and style." The Arlington Daily News reported in a collaborative recital with cellist Stephen Pelkey that, "….Parr, whose solid technique was coupled with a vibrant sound suffused with color, played with authoritative confidence and considerable flair." Mrs. Parr has also appeared with the Harrington String Quartet and with artists Kenneth Goldsmith, Isidor Saslav, Elbert Pruitt, Terry King, Raphael Sanders, John Goodall and Charles Gavin in the Chamber Music in the Pines summer festival. Many performances with the Sylvan Chamber Ensemble (members: violinist Isidor Saslav, cellist Paul Christopher and pianists Andrew and Linda Parr), previously a Texas Commission on the Arts touring group, have included all-Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Brahms chamber programs, children's concerts, and performances as soloists in the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Longview and Orchestra of the Pines symphony orchestras.

As a piano instructor since 1983 and past Associate, Co-Director and Director of the SFA Music Preparatory Division, Mrs. Parr was instrumental in gaining associate membership for the Division in November 1993 as the first school in Texas accredited by the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. She has been active as a program chairperson and scriptwriter of several scholarship fundraiser events. Her “Prep” piano students have consistently received superior ratings in festivals and competitions including local MTA Fall and Sonatina festivals and many first place winners of the East Texas Piano Solo Festival. Students have performed in master classes, placed in TMTA District and State Performance Contests, the Baylor/Waco Piano Competition, the McKinney Young Artist piano competition and were winners in the Anne Dean Turk Piano Competition. Students have also received Honorable Mention in state TMTA Composition contests.

Mrs. Parr joined the piano faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University in 1986. Besides actively teaching a class of applied piano students, she was instrumental in the development of SFA’s Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance with Pedagogy Emphasis and Piano Pedagogy certificate program, and was Director of a Community College Keyboard Conference hosted by SFA in 2002.

Linda Parr is a member of the national music honor society, Pi Kappa Lambda, and served as past President and member since 1984 of the Nacogdoches Symphony Club. Nationally certified with the Music Teachers National Association professional certificate, Mrs. Parr has served as President, Vice-president and Student Affiliate Chair of the local Nacogdoches MTA chapter and also as Faculty Adviser for the SFA Collegiate Student Chapter which received the national MTNA Collegiate Student Chapter of the Year award for 1998-99. She has been active as an adjudicator for piano festivals, competitions, and TMTA District and State Performance contests.