For the past 50 years, Carol Montparker has enjoyed a dual career as pianist and writer.
She gave her New York debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1976, about which Donal Henahan, then Chief Critic of The New York Times wrote “a splendid debut by a pianist who starts where others leave off.” On February 19, 2009, Montparker returned to Weill Hall for a special birthday celebration concert.
Ms. Montparker’s first two CD’s, Pianogarden I and II, recorded in live concert, were praised by artists and critics including Harold C. Schonberg; Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times, called her “a real artist, whose playing is unfailingly graceful and affecting.”
In 1998 Montparker was invited by Steinway & Sons to join the distinguished official roster of Steinway Artists. She celebrated the event with a gala concert at Steinway Hall in New York. A CD of that live event is now available on MUSIC page.
A major project was Montparker’s series called “The Composer’s Landscape”, presented at Steinway; each event was focused on a single composer and corresponded to her book of the same name.; the word “landscape” is a metaphor for the score and the individual characteristics of that composer. The format consisted of a performance by Ms. Montparker of a major work by the composer, commentary about the essential elements and challenges in the performance of his music, and a coaching class of several participating pianists with works-in-progress. The series was very well received and well attended by teachers, pianists, and educated auditors. Several of these events are available through the MUSIC page.
Montparker’s book,
A Pianist’s Landscape
(Amadeus Press), received enthusiastic reviews (see REVIEWS page) resulting in frequent invitations for book-talks and lecture-recitals in universities (including the Juilliard School of Music, Yale University School of Music, UCLA, Queens College, Mannes College of Music,) at piano festivals, and music education conferences. This book discusses every aspect of the pianist’s life, from home to stage. A book of short stories drawn from a pianist’s life, titled The Blue Piano and Other Stories, and a children’s book, Polly and the Piano were published by Amadeus Press in 2004. (See BOOKS page).
Two books were added in 2011 to the roster of Montparker’s work: A Pianist’s Journal in Venice is a colorful, happy, and sometimes mysterious account of her musical escapades in Venice, with a watercolor on every page, and A Pianist’s Homecoming is her sequel to the first book, The Anatomy of a New York Debut, which went into its third printing. (Glenn Gould was planning to write a sequel for “The Anatomy” –before he died suddenly). Gould wrote about Montparker’s book, “This superb diary is the most un-put-downable book about music I have read. in a long time.” That first book is an account of the joys and exigencies of her preparation for a New York recital. Montparker received hundreds of letters from pianists (of great renown as well as garden-variety piano students),
in response to that journal, which resides in almost every music library in universities across the country. It is the writing of that book that drew Montparker to the world of music journalism.
The year 2014, marked the arrival of Montparker’s seventh book on music, The Composer’s Landscape; the Pianist as Explorer: Interpreting the Scores of Eight Masters, a major project evolving from her popular series of lecture-recitals at Steinway, and also including the wisdom of many world-renowned artists, interviewed by Montparker in Clavier. This is the most comprehensive work from the pianist-author, who has spent many years of performance, writing, teaching, and interviewing, in preparation for this book. The book also includes a CD of Montparker’s live performances of the composers discussed in the book. (See the BOOKS and REVIEWS pages for more details).
A few years ago, Montparker began “harvesting” the many live performances that were recorded during her long career. The result is a collection of 8 double-CDS (music with commentary), organized by single composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and Mendelssohn.). These CDs correspond to the composers and text treated in the book The Composer’s Landscape. They are now available through this website and via youtube.com.
As senior editor of Clavier for fifteen years, Montparker interviewed world-famous artists for feature stories, and reviewed concerts and books. For 15 years she had her own column, Carillon, a personal view of music and how it relates to the other arts, nature, and life. Responding to many requests from readers of the now defunct Clavier, she is assembling a collection of the almost 100 columns for another book. She has won four Awards for Excellence in Journalism from Educational Press of America and has published freelance articles in virtually every music periodical as well as The New York Times and Newsday.
Montparker was a protegée of Leopold Mittman, studied also with Josef Fidelman, and Angela Weschler at the New York College of Music, and was privileged to be coached by Jerome Lowenthal, Claude Frank, Horacio Gutierrez, André Watts, and Peter Frankl. She majored in music at Queens College, where she won the Orchestral Society Award, granted to the “most outstanding instrumentalist on campus”.
Carol Montparker has maintained a private piano studio at her Huntington residence for many years. Teaching has been one of the most fulfilling elements of her life in music. (See TEACHING page)
In addition to her professions as pianist and writer, Carol Montparker is a watercolorist. An exciting cross-pollination between her work as a pianist and as a painter has produced a series of paintings that have appeared on the covers and illustrations within various music magazines and her books, including Polly and the Piano, The Blue Piano and Other Stories, and A Pianist’s Journal in Venice.