Primary Instrument: Piano
Mariah Parker (composer, pianist, and santur player), while completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, worked with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project. She has performed in festivals in the US and Europe, and worked with composer Pauline Oliveros, Dumisani Maraire (reowned composer from Zimbabwe) and others. She has studied with jazz great Art Lande and Latin jazz pianist extraordinaire Rebeca Mauléon, and performs regularly with the trend-setting world music group Ancient Future.
“Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music. Intriguing melodies that draw musical inspirations from the tempos of Brazil, Cuba, India, and Spain make for an uplifting serene yet passionate musical journey into an ideal world.” - LATIN BEAT MAGAZINE
“Dazzling debut... Parker’s subtle and sensuous sounds reflect exotic flavors of India, the Middle East and Latin America.” - PALO ALTO DAILY NEWS
“This collection of eight original instrumentals by Mariah Parker is just one of many examples of the infusion of East Indian music into Western music, but to my ears one of the most successful.” - AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
“Featuring musicians from the bands Sun Ra, Oregon, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and Ancient Future, Mariah Parker’s debut blends rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz, hypnotic East Indian cadences and driving Brazilian and Afro-Cuban percussive beats. Although entirely instrumental, Sangria speaks. Maybe it’s the technical virtuosity abounding in the multiplicity of sounds ” in the santur or sarangi, or the tabla or timbales. Maybe it’s in the emotive resonance of what’s behind the sounds.... Whatever it is, Parker’s Sangria is a lively, adventurous exploration into a hybrid global identity” - LEO WEEKLY
“Dazzling debut... Parker’s subtle and sensuous sounds reflect exotic flavors of India, the Middle East and Latin America.” - PALO ALTO DAILY NEWS
“This collection of eight original instrumentals by Mariah Parker is just one of many examples of the infusion of East Indian music into Western music, but to my ears one of the most successful.” - AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
“Featuring musicians from the bands Sun Ra, Oregon, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and Ancient Future, Mariah Parker’s debut blends rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz, hypnotic East Indian cadences and driving Brazilian and Afro-Cuban percussive beats. Although entirely instrumental, Sangria speaks. Maybe it’s the technical virtuosity abounding in the multiplicity of sounds ” in the santur or sarangi, or the tabla or timbales. Maybe it’s in the emotive resonance of what’s behind the sounds.... Whatever it is, Parker’s Sangria is a lively, adventurous exploration into a hybrid global identity” - LEO WEEKLY
