# Maggie Parke

Maggie Parke, (Margaret Elizabeth Parke), is an American multi-disciplinary artist born in1955, best-known for her role as lead singer and co-writer for the Luxembourg Pop band Park Café, which represented Luxembourg at the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest.
Parke was the director of Luxembourg's Echternach Music Festival from 1982-1984. She co-founded Waltzing-Parke Productions, Waltzing Parke Audio and WPR Records. She lives and works in Luxembourg and the United States.

## Early years

Born 1955 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Fredrick Lineous Parke and Rose Elizabeth Jordan as the youngest of their four children. Her father was an Air Traffic Controller and amateur geologist, her mother a full-time mom. Parke was raised in Bountiful, Utah and graduated from Viewmont High School. She spent summers on her grandparents' cattle ranch in Albion Idaho and her winters skiing at the Utah ski resorts. In her youth she traveled the western US deserts with her family in search of semi-precious minerals, (fire opal, petrified wood, Biggs jasper) a hobby of her fathers. Early on Parke developed a love for travel and active adventure such as scuba diving, hang gliding and photography.

## Career

Directly out of high school she was trained in graphic design by her brother Phillip Erle Parke, working with him at Phonebooks Inc, later at his own company Overnight Graphics, both in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1974 she married John Slawinski, a psychologist and Vietnam veteran. They divorced in 1975.
Maggie moved to Los Angeles and worked for Chick Corea Productions under the management of Ron Moss. She was in charge of Chick Corea’s two music publishing companies, Thadius Music and Litha Music. She collaborated closely with Corea’s law firm, Micky Shapiro and Steven Steinburg, learning about copyright law. In 1976 she married John Patrick Ryan, of Chicago Kid Productions. They divorced in 1978.
Parke relocated to Luxembourg, Europe, to work with world renown classical pianist Cyprien Katsaris. In 1982 Maggie Parke took over the management of the Festival International Echternach, a classical music festival, of which Katsaris was the musical director. During this time fundraised for the festival, using the then new Fonds National law put in place by prime minister, Pierre Werner.
Parke met trumpet player and composer Gast Waltzing and they married in 1983. He was the first musician in Luxembourg to win a Grammy.Waltzing and Parke founded the Pop group Park Cafe (also sometimes Parc Café) in 1985.
Parke had worked in Luxembourg as a graphic designer at Made by Sams advertising agency. She began writing melodies and lyrics to Waltzing's compositions and they recorded their first EP for the Agency’s summer promotion campaign in 1984. This was the origination of Park Cafe as Waltzing and Parke continued to compose Pop songs together with Parke as lead vocalist. Park Cafe was signed to BMGBelgium in 1987 and released their first CD titled “Parc Café”. It was the first record by a national artist to be released in CD format in Luxembourg. RTL Television chose their song “I Want Your Magic Back” to inaugurate their new PAINT BOX (Quantel Paint Box Video Editor) creating a new style of video.
In 1989 Park Cafe represented Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lucerne Switzerland, with the song “Monsieur”. Between 1984 and 1992 Parke wrote over a hundred songs for the band Park Cafe, usually contributing Lyrics and melodies to Waltzing’s compositions.
Maggie Parke and Gast Waltzing were nominated for Best European Film Composers in 1989 for their film music for A Wopbopaloobop a Lopbamboom a film by Andy Bausch.
Maggie Parke and Gast Waltzing founded Waltzing Parke Productions in 1983. Waltzing Parke Productions produced film music for more than two hundred film and TV series episodes, mostly compositions from Waltzing, with contributions of songs and lyrics by Parke.
In 1992 Parke released a solo CD titled Never Close Your Eyes. In 1993 she performed the title song Paradox Love for the Goetz George TV series Morlock. Parke acted in Decadence, by Steven Berkoff and House on the Hills by Kevin Weiderhorns. Additionally she wrote the Libretto for the Modern Opera Smalltime, for which Gast Waltzing composed the music. It was produced by the Théâtre de la Ville du Luxembourg and premiered in September 1995. She performed the starring role of Anita.
In the fall of 1999 Maggie Parke and Gast Waltzing were commissioned by the Government of Luxembourg to write a suite of music aimed at the youth of Europe, encompassing the last 100 years. They composed a group of 14 songs treating such subjects as war, witch hunts, hope, dreams, and change. Part of the mission was to assemble a group to perform these works and tour in Luxembourg performing more than 30 concerts culminating in the final concert at the World Expo in Hanover, Germany on July 15th, 2000, the World Music Day. The project was recorded and released by WPR Records titled The Imagi Nation.
Maggie Parke performed for the special event of the crowning of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg on 7th of October 2000, with two original songs.
2001 Parke co-founded a new Audio Postproduction studio with Waltzing called Waltzing Parke Audio, to provide sound design for the budding Luxembourgish film industry. She supervised the sound design for the film George and the Dragon by Carousel Pictures. She also released a solo Cd titled "Tattoo On MY Heart" with the single "Roll With The Punches".
Parke contributed the song “Do The Thing” to the film “Pointmen” starring Christopher Lambert.
Maggie Parke and Jill Mercedes wrote the Screen Play One Second Ahead, and were awarded a certificate of merit in the 2001 International Screen Play Competition sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association.
For the Depart of the Tour de France in 2002, Parke performed in the before program of the Scorpions with the Orchestra Philharmonique du Luxembourg, her original music written specially for that occasion.
In 2004 Waltzing and Parke created WPR Records, which produced more than twenty-five CDs featuring young Luxembourg jazz artists including Mich Reis, Jeff Herr, Daniel Balthasar and Jazz guitarist David Laborier.
In 2006 Parke was awarded The Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from the Luxembourg Government for her contributions to the Luxembourgish film industry, before it was government subsidized.
In 2009 Parke oversaw the production of the sound design and mix for Jill Mercedes multimedia installation in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 52nd Contemporary Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
She has written songs for other artists such as Crystal Vision, Selima, Shiho, as well as commissions for the Ville de Luxembourg.

### 2019-2023

Throughout her professional life Parke has accumulated a large body of work as a photographer. For a long time Parke kept her photography private and has only lately agreed to show her work publicly. The lockdowns finally motivated Parke to comb through her archives. She choose to have the selection of large formatted images printed directly on aluminium. The media as well as her specific way of hanging them establish a proper visual vocabulary. In 2023 she agreed to do her first solo photography exhibition at the Valentiny Foundation in Remerch, Luxembourg, Showing Empty Stage Series.

## Discography

| Cat | Year | Artist Title | | Label |
| Jazz | 1987 | Atmosphere - In the Backstreets | CD | WPP |
| Pop | 1986 | Park Cafe - My Song For You | EP | WPP |
| | 1987 | Park Cafe - Park Care | CD | BMG |
| | 1989 | Park Cafe - Living In Toonland | Sing | ChR |
| | 1990 | Park Cafe - Goodtime Boy | CD | Dnsk |
| | 1992 | Park Cafe - Won't Fall Again | CD | WPP |
| | 1995 | City Project Co-Writer on 3 racks | CD | VdeL |
| | 1995 | Crystal Vision - Crystal Vision | CD | Plygm |
| | 1997 | La Difference - Suite for '95 | CD | WPP |
| | 1997 | Maggie Parke - Tattoo on my Heart | CD | WPP |
| | 2000 | Mascha - Grey Skies | CD | WPP |
| | 2001 | The ImagiNation | CD | WPP |
| | 2011 | Various Artists - Luscious Ladies | CD | WPP |
| | 2012 | Maggie Parke - White Christmas | EP | WPP |
| | 2019 | O.N.J.L. - Hope 4 Songs performed by Selima | CD | WPP |
| | 2019 | Shiho - A Vocalist co - writer 2 songs | CD | RECJap |

### Filmography

| year | Film - artistic contribution | production company and director | |
| 1989 | A Wopbopaloobop Lopbamboom | Frankfurter Film Productions Dir: Andy Barsch | Nominated for Best European Film Composer along with Gast Waltzing |
| 1989 | Mumm Sweet Mumm | Ministere de l'Education Luxembourg | Musician |
| 1991 | Der Millionar - TV Series | Frankfurter Film Productions Dir: M. Serifini, W. Wikert, Muller-Schone | Park Cafe songs used in many episodes |
| 1991 | Strumpi und Wolf | Berlin Allianz Filmproduktion Dir: Andy Bausch | Lyrics for Title Song |
| 1993 | Morlock - TV Series | Bavaria Film | Performed Title Song |
| 1993 | House on the Hill | Delux Productions Dir: Kevin Wiederhorn | Played Receptionist |
| 1994 | Decadence | Delux Productions Dir: Steven Birkoff | Played Waitress |
| 1995 | The Way To Dusty Death | Delux Productions Dir: Geoffrey Reeves | Co-wrote and performed title song |
| 1995 | Flitz Feuerzahn- cartoon | Monopoly Productions Dir: Milos Hlavac | Melody and Lyrics for title song |
| 1995 | The First 9 1/2 Weeks | Caruosel Pictures Dir: Alex Wright | co-wrote and performed title song |
| 1999 | New World Disorder | Carousel Pictures Dir: Richard Spence | Co-wrote 3 songs in movie |
| 2001 | The Pointment | Carousel Pictures Dir: John Glen | Co-wrote and performed "Do The Thing" |
| 2001 | Diggity - Home At last | Carousel Pictures Dir: Tom Reeves | Co-Wrote and performed end credit song "A Deeper Love" |
| 2003 | George and the Dragon | Carousel Pictures Dir:Tom Reeves | Co-wrote and performed end credit song "It Will Always Be You" |

### Stage and theater

| year | Titel | | |
| 1995 | SMALLTIME- A Modern Opera | Theater de la Ville De Luxembourg | Wrote the libertto and performed the part of Anita |
* ↑ "Gast Waltzing | Artist | GRAMMY.com". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
* ↑ "DISC OG".
* ↑ 1989 Luxembourg: Park Café - Monsieur (20th place at Eurovision Song Contest in Lausanne), retrieved 2023-12-19
* ↑ "Maggie Parke". www.wikidata.org. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
* ↑ "Maggie Parke discography - RYM/Sonemic". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
* ↑ "Margaret Parke | Actress". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
* ↑ eMinor, Maggie Parke Videos | ReverbNation, retrieved 2023-12-19