Parker Callister is a composer and guitarist from Ithaca, NY.
His music draws influence from electronic and noise music while also operating in a contemporary music idiom. Compositional interests include close-mic amplification, spectral harmony, as well as timbral exploration. He has had his music performed by notable artists such as Erik Drescher, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Jeffrey Ziegler, Lori Freedman as well as the Unheard//Of Ensemble, the Ithaca New Music Ensemble, OSSIA New Music, line upon line percussion, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Graduate Composers Sinfonietta, the Ithaca Graduate Percussion Trio, the ETHEL Quartet, Yarn/Wire, members of the Slee Sinfonietta, ECCE Ensemble, and ASKO/Schoenberg.
His primary mentors have included Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Michael Hersch, Evis Sammoutis, Du Yun, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Robert Morris, and Jorge Grossmann. He has received additional instruction in masterclasses and lessons from composers such as Chinary Ung, David Rakowski, Georg Friedrich Haas, Augusta Read Thomas, Jeffrey Mumford, Stefano Gervasoni, among others. Parker has received commissions from the Baltimore Integrated Arts Society, line upon line percussion, OSSIA New Music, and the Music Educators of Lansing, NY. Currently, he is working on a collaborative work for fixed media and dance with Rochester-based choreographer Ruben T. Ornelas.
Having received his Bachelor’s in Music Composition from Ithaca College and his Master’s from the Peabody Institute, Parker is currently a PhD candidate in the Music Composition program at the Eastman School of Music. Additionally, Parker teaches as a lecturer in Music Theory at Ithaca College.