Anthony Parnther
(Konstantin Golochinsky)
By Victoria Looseleaf
August 31, 2019
A prolific conductor of film, television, and video game scores, Anthony Parnther
may be one of Southern California’s best kept musical secrets. An
American conductor of West Indian and Samoan descent, Parnther was
recently appointed music director of the San Bernardino Symphony, whose 91st season begins Sept. 14 with the maestro leading the orchestra in a program that includes Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Also a bassoonist with the Hollywood Studio Symphony, Parnther, who
was born in Norfolk, Virginia, earned a master’s degree in conducting
from Yale University, having studied the art form at Northwestern
University and education at East Tennessee State University. He is a
leading authority on orchestral works by minority and women composers
and has, to date, restored and performed works by Florence Price,
Zenobia Powell Perry, William Grant Still, and Duke Ellington, among
others.
In addition, the 2019–2020 season will see Parnther taking the podium
for his 10th year as music director of the Southeast Symphony in Los
Angeles. A primarily African-American orchestra that was founded in
1948, the symphony continues to perform a wide range of works, from
spirituals and civil rights’ anthems to Handel’s Messiah. In April of last year, Parnther led a program dedicated to the works of composer/flutist James Newton that also featured musical luminaries such as pianist Gloria Cheng.
Garnering praise for his conducting prowess throughout the world,
Parnther has made appearances on five continents, and in such locales as
the United Kingdom, South Korea, and throughout the United States.
Indeed, Parnther was one of only two conductors to have opened the
refurbished Queen Elizabeth’s Hall (the other was Benjamin Britten in
1968), when he conducted Europe’s first symphony orchestra made up
entirely of black and minority ethnic professional musicians, the Chineke! Orchestra. Of that performance, the Guardian’s
Tim Ashley wrote, “The finale [of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony] was
edge-of-your-seat stuff, blending rhythmic precision and energy with
heady elation.”
And talk about heady elation, Parnther is the go-to guy for conducting Riot Games’ international e-sport juggernaut, League of Legends
(LOL). Chalking up a staggering 120 million active users, LOL is the
most-played video game on the planet, with Parnther having served as
principal conductor for both scoring sessions and live concerts since
2013.
Helming megaconcerts globally, including at venues such as Seoul’s
World Cup Stadium, Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi, and at home in Los
Angeles at the Staples Center, Parnther was delighted to talk about this
21st-century phenomenon, as well as his myriad activities, in a phone
conversation that covered the musical waterfront.
What prompted your interest in music — and why the bassoon?
My entry into music was mostly because I wanted to go on field trips.
I’d be stuck in some class and would hear on the loudspeaker, “Would
all the members of the middle school report to the band room for their
trip to Disney World,” or [something] like that. And I wanted to go on
all of these fabulous trips. My friends would come back and say how fun
this was, so my plot was to join the band. I opened the dictionary and
in the “A” section I saw an accordion — I remember seeing it on The Lawrence Welk Show.
When I got to the “B” section I decided I would play the bassoon
because I thought it was a fascinating contraption. I took it to the
band director to join, but, unfortunately, the band did not go on any
trips the next year.
