It is with great pleasure that we welcome back Alex Parker as a festival clinician.

Mr. Parker joined the faculty at Baylor University in the Fall of 2001. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Jazz Studies. He serves as the director of the Baylor Jazz Ensemble, the Baylor Concert Jazz Ensemble, jazz combos, and jazz string quartets, and he teaches undergraduate and graduate students in several jazz disciplines. Mr. Parker also serves as the Director and Coordinator of the Baylor Summer Music Camps. Mr. Parker received the Baylor University Outstanding Professor Award for Teaching in 2010.

Mr. Parker earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Miami at Coral Gables, where he studied jazz with Whit Sidner and conducting with Gary Green. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where his principal teachers were Fred Sturm and Bill Dobbins (jazz) and Barbara Butler (trumpet). His background is in jazz writing, jazz performance, and jazz pedagogy, as well as trumpet performance and instrumental teaching.

Before coming to Baylor, Mr. Parker was band director at Pflugerville High School. Prior to this position, he served as band and orchestra director at Fort Lauderdale High School in Florida. These high school bands have been sweepstakes winners in the Texas University Interscholastic League and the Florida Bandmasters Association, respectively.

Mr. Parker is a founding director of the Texas Jazz Educators Association and currently serves as a director on the executive board. He is also the past president of the Texas Chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education and is a charter member of the Jazz Educators Network.

Mr. Parker has performed with the Eastman Jazz Ensembles, the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Philharmonia, as well as with the Jazz, Salsa, and Wind Ensembles and combos at the University of Miami and many other professional ensembles and combos. His jazz and studio orchestra compositions have been performed by many groups around the country, including the Harrisburg Symphony and ensembles at Eastman, Miami, and Baylor.