Community members, musicians, friends, family, and fans are all invited to a concert in honor of the late Hawley composer Alice Parker. 

Mohawk Trail Concerts will host Remembering Alice: A Joyous Celebration of Alice Parker in Words and Music at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1, at the Federated Church on Route 2 in Charlemont. 

Alice Parker was a composer, musician, and beloved Hawley resident. Throughout her life, she wrote over 500 pieces of music and was integral to the founding of the Mohawk Trail Concerts. She passed away in December 2023.

“Alice Parker was in on the concerts from the beginning,” said Mark Fraser, the concert’s executive artistic director. “And she’s stayed involved all along.”

Mohawk Trail Concerts began in 1970 after Parker invited violinist Arnold Black to perform at the Federated Church. Fraser said Black was impressed by the church’s incredible acoustics and decided it would be a great location to host a concert series. 

The memorial concert will include pieces Parker wrote and pieces she enjoyed, performed by musicians who knew and loved her. To honor the breadth of her talent and taste, the concert will feature a smattering of choral music, classical music, American popular standards, contemporary folk, and her own specialty, a sing-along.

“It’s gonna be an overview of all the things she was involved in the community, musically at least,” said Molly Pyle Stejskal, Parker’s daughter. 

Performances will come from Stejskal alongside The Farm House Quartet, which is composed of violinists Roy Lewis and Masako Yanagita, violist Maggie Speier, and cellist Mark Fraser.

Esther Haskell, the minister of music at the Federated Church, singer-songwriter Jasper Lewis, pianist Jerry Noble, and Tinky Weisblat will also perform.

Stejskal will be singing selections from “Songs for Eve,” which Mohawk Trail Concerts commissioned Alice to write years ago using poetry from Archibald MacLeish.

Stejskal said it was an easy choice, as she was involved when the piece was reworked about 10 years ago. 

The piece was originally written in 1975 and premiered in 1976 as a concert-length composition. At 70 minutes long, the piece couldn’t be performed with anything else, so about 10 years ago Parker reworked it and created excerpts that could be performed individually. 

Stejskal said she performed the selected excerpts along with Parker’s dear friends Speier and Lewis. 

She added that the piece is also a good selection as it showcases her mother’s love for the region. 

“She was very attached to the area and adored the hills of New England,” Stejskal said. 

Parker spent much of her life summering in Hawley and moved to the area permanently at the age of 70. 

Speier and Lewis will be performing an arrangement of “Love Walked In” in addition to playing with the quartet. The couple’s son, Jasper, will also perform a contemporary folk song that he composed in honor of Parker. 

In addition to music, Parker’s friends and family will share stories about the composer. Following the concert, light refreshments will be provided.

The concert is about remembering Parker, but is also about celebrating how music can be used to build community. 

“The concert is really a community thing,” Stejskal said. “Her philosophy was that music and singing is central to our being and should be used to bring people together.”

Stejskal said her mother was very involved in the community, and loved to use music as a way to tie people together. She would frequently end her concerts by asking the audience to join in and sing a song with her. 

“She was pretty amazing,” Stejskal said. 

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit mohawktrailconcerts.org.