Composer, conductor and teacher Alice Parker has unintentionally paved paths in her lifetime.
Parker, who will hold a workshop in Keller Hall today, has made music with legendary choral conductor Robert Shaw and opened doors for other women in conducting.
"She is a direct link to some of the really great choral and any kind of musicians in the twentieth century," music professor Brad Ellingboe said.
Parker doesn't believe she has done anything particularly special.
"I don't feel like a standard bearer for woman," she said. "I am just a woman who has been able to achieve a whole lot in what I absolutely love to do."
Parker said she loves is to travel the country and spread the message that melody comes first over anything else in music.
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"No one has to teach little kids to sing," she said. "They just sing. It is what can come out of one human throat that is the whole road to music. Instruments come later."
Las Cantantes, UNM's woman's choir the concert choir will sing some of Parker's songs for her today.
Cammy Cook, a member of Las Cantantes, said the perform ance will be difficult.
"I really hope we do it justice with her being there," she said. "No one knows the piece better than the composer."
But Parker said she is a strong believer in improvisation and is looking forward to singing with the choir.
"It is perfectly possible to make marvelous music without the page," she said. "When you are improvising, there isn't any limit."
Parker said today she will supply the melody of the songs and the words, but there will be no arrangement. Whatever music the choir creates will be improvisation.
"It is not only enormous fun, it's extremely musical," she said. "It comes out sounding as though we have rehearsed it for years."
Cook said she is fortunate for the opportunity to have such a great musician come to UNM.
"I am getting a real life education because of the composers the music department bring in," she said. "It isn't just a theoretical thing - that there are great composers out there - but a very real thing that we get to see in front of us."
COMING ATTRACTION
Alice Parker
Where: Keller Hall
When: 9.30 a.m.
