Songs for Praise - About Me & Contact Me

Site Map | Help | Links | What's New?

About Me & Contact Me

Thomas Byron Parks 2003
Thomas Byron Parks
2426 Mapleton Lane
Raleigh, NC 27613-3615
919-846-7451
ThomasParks2@aol.com

Why is it free? I'm eighty one, and, while some of my work has been sung and played in church and on stage, it remains unpublished. It seems like it's time to give it away. Anyway, I never did it for the money.

I am a husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, Christian, American, retired control systems engineer, sailor, and at last, a composer. I grew up a Presbyterian, but have also been a Congregationalist and am now a Methodist. I have sung and played the Guitar in Congregational, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist choirs. I was in The Livingston Players, a community theater group. I was also an Electricians Mate in the U.S. Navy in WWII and the Korean War. I sailed Shearwater Number 9, an early catamaran.

I owe my interest in Christian music and the Liturgy to the late Dr. Richard Klausli, Professor of Music at Michigan State University...and my Choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Lansing, Michigan across from the State Capitol. What an experience! There, a choir that was equally from the Church, from the M.S.U. Music Department, and from the community from fifty miles around, met as friends...each seeking God in their own way...and joyfully sang the great religious music of the world...to God's everlasting glory!

I studied orchestration with the late Dr. Charles Campbell, Professor of Music at Miami University. I also sang in the choirs of Richard Klausli, Richard Lenz, Dalos Grobe, Susan Huckabee, and Michael Glasgow...all great capella meisters!

In the Chorus of Gilbert & Sullivan's"H.M.S. Pinafore."

All aboard! Shearwater Catamaran, Sail Number 9