Biography
A Life Shaped by Sound and Spirit
Henry L. Parker, Jr. is a master musician, minister, educator, and digital media entrepreneur whose career spans concert halls, classrooms, churches, and the digital frontier. Formed in Detroit's rich cultural tradition, his biography reads like a tour of American music at its highest levels.
In March 2024, Parker directed the Shorter College Choir on the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City — performing alongside the New England Symphonic Ensemble. In 1998, he served as Musical Director for Aretha Franklin at the Operation Push Convention in Chicago. In 2007, he conducted the Marvin L. Winans Academy Choir at the Cardinals' Communion Service at the Vatican in Rome, and performed alongside Marvin L. Winans with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Parker holds a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Arkansas Monticello and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition from Eastern Kentucky University. He chaired the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Arkansas Baptist College for 15 years and currently serves as Minister of Music at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In 2026, his gospel recording "Surely (Psalm 23)" — produced using Suno AI and Logic Pro — earned a dedicated two-hour radio feature in Detroit, the city that made him.