Parker Bert

Parker Bert  

A native of Massachusetts, Parker Bert has been living in Montreal for the past seven years. He completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in percussion performance at McGill University, where he studied with Aiyun Huang and Fabrice Marandola. He specializes in contemporary chamber music, interdisciplinary work, and world music traditions.

Parker has performed at Toronto’s Cool Drummings Festival and Sofia Gubaidulina Festival. At McGill, he performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble and collaborated with the Digital Composition Studio. Under the direction of CIRMMT, Parker co-created the Expanded Performance Practice Trio, a chamber group of electric cello, digital turntables, v-drums, and percussion which premiered at the inaugural Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival in Winnipeg. During the 2010 MusiMars festival, Parker performed a number of theatre percussion works, including Mauricio Kagel’s Dressur and Mark Applebaum’s Straitjacket. Parker has been recorded by the CBC several times. He regularly plays percussion for musical theatre, operetta, and other ensembles in Montreal. Among other world music traditions, Parker actively pursues studies in tabla, the well known drums of North Indian music.

In addition to music, Parker has a passion for circus. He combines his love of travel, music, and juggling while on tour with award winning New England based Circus Smirkus as their drummer / percussionist. He will join Smirkus again for the 2012 season.