Dover, NH
Ryan Parker
Born in Manchester N.H. in 1973, Ryan Parker began to study piano at the age of 12. By the age of 20 his focus was to complete a degree in the music education program at the University Of New Hampshire.
After graduating from UNH in 1996 he worked with some of Boston’s great jazz musicians. As the director of the Celebrity Concert Series at UNH Manchester, Ryan was able to invite the likes of Gray Sargent (Tony Bennett’s long time guitarist), John Lockwood (Boston bassist), and most especially the Boston trumpet legend who played with Charlie Parker in the 1950's, Herb Pomeroy.
In 1998 Ryan enrolled in the New England Conservatory Master’s Program for Jazz Studies. There he was able to study with musicians from all over the world, including Michael Cain, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, and Danilo Perez and earned a Master of Music degree.
In 2000 Ryan graduated from the NEC program and began to play locally in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire and around New England. His first album, “The music of Maurice Ravel”, was recorded in his living room. It was not long after that Ryan recorded his first jazz album “Deep Oceans”, featuring Herb Pomeroy on trumpet. On this recording Ryan featured himself in quartet and duo settings, as well as utilizing the idea of overdubbing three piano tracks on a single cut, a technique introduced to the jazz world by Bill Evans. This recording was instrumental in Ryan’s becoming the youngest recipient of a New Hampshire Council On the Arts Grant in 2002.
Soon thereafter, he joined the Jim Howe Trio at the Press Room in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Sunday nights, filling the vacant piano bench left by the passing of Seacoast fixture,Tommy Gallant. This was a real chance to meet and play with musicians from all over the world as they traveled through the Boston area. Jim Howe’s passing on October 13th, 2007, left a void in the Seacoast and Ryan soon found himself needing to help continue the legacy of jazz on the Seacoast of NH, both at The Press Room and The Tommy Gallant Jazz Festival at Prescott Park.
Since, Ryan has gone on to record three more albums as the producer/sound engineer/pianist; “Swingin For The Holidays”, “Get Happy! A Big Band Tribute to Clark Terry”, and his most recent, “Be Real Special - The Music of James Williams”.
Starting in 2003 Ryan has been the digital archivist and audio/video recording engineer for the University of New Hampshire Jazz Studies Program and Traditional Jazz Series. In this role he has recorded and mixed, on average, twelve to fourteen concerts per year and in addition worked to digitally archive approximately 250 concerts since the beginning of the Traditional Jazz Series, which started in 1979.
Saturday, January 7, 2023
2:00 PM – 2:50 PM US EST