Ethel Adelaide Parker

Ethel Adelaide Parker (21 July 1886 – 1 February 1971) was an English concert organist and composer. Parker composed under a number of pseudonyms including Etelka d’Arba, Bruno d’Arba, Joan d’Arba and Joan McLeod.

Education
Between 1905 and 1909 Parker studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and one of her tutors was Sir Walter Parratt. At a later date Parker continued her studies in Germany with Dr Karl Straube in Leipzig, and also the composer Max Reger.

Musical Career
As a concert organist Parker promoted English contemporary music in Europe, and was noted to be the first women organist to perform a solo in the celebrated Thomaskirche Saturday Motette series in Leipzig. In England Parker gave the first performance of Reger’s Fantasy and Fugue on Bach, which took place on 30 June 1910 at the Queen’s Hall in London. Parker is also credited with introducing the music of Sigfrid Karg-Elert to the British public, who composed specifically his In dulci jubilo Op 75 No 2 for Parker and dedicated it to her.

In the 1920s Parker became interested, through campanologist William Wooding Starmer, in carillon and bell music. It is believed that through the support of a Swiss millionaire, she continued her studies in performance under Antoon Nauwelaerts in Bruges. Around this time, she was known to travel Europe widely as a concert organist, often using the name Adelaide Parker.

As a composer, many leading publishers promoted the music of Parker including Novello & Co, J & W Chester, J. Curwen & Sons and Cramer Music. In writing music for the voice, she set texts by many poets including Christina Rossetti, W. B. Yeats, R. M. Rilke, as well as dedicating works to leading musicians including Elena Gerhardt and Maria Olenina-d’Alheim. Parker is often cited as being the first known women to have composed for the carillon, and letters survive between Parker and Percival Price concerning this area of interest.

Works
The Royal College of Music houses an archive of manuscript and published scores by Parker.