Parkening, Christopher (William)
Parkening, Christopher (William)
Parkening, Christopher (William), outstanding American guitarist; b. Los Angeles, Dec. 14, 1947. He began guitar lessons when he was 11 with Celedonio and Pepe Romero in Los Angeles, making his public recital debut in 1959. When he was 15, he entered Andres Segovia’s master class at the Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; also received instruction from cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and harpsichordist Malcolm Hamilton. He attended the Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles (1964–65), then entered the Univ. of Southern Calif, as a cello student of Gabor Retjo (there were no guitar teachers on its faculty). By the close of his sophomore year, he was asked by the Univ. to teach guitar, thus initiating its guitar studies; was head of its guitar dept. (1971–75). In the meantime, he launched a brilliant career as a guitar virtuoso; after his first major tour of North America (1969), he regularly performed throughout the U.S. and Canada; also made extensive tours throughout the world, garnering acclaim as one of the foremost masters of his instrument. He publ. a valuable guitar method (1973) and made effective transcriptions of works by Bach, Dowland, Debussy, Ravel, and others.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire