# Steve Parker (artist)

Steve Parker is an artist and musician based in Austin, Texas. He creates interactive sound sculptures, performances, and installations that incorporate public participation. His work examines themes related to history, technology, and social behavior through sound.
Parker has received the Creative Capital Award, the Rome Prize, the Tito's Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

## Early life and education

Parker earned a double major in music and mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory, graduating in 2002. Initially trained as a trombonist, he later developed an interest in technology and experimental art, including computer programming and neural networks. He subsequently earned advanced degrees in music from Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin.

## Career

After his studies, Parker became involved in Austin's arts community as a trombonist and organizer. He curated the series SoundSpace at the Blanton Museum of Art, a music series that integrated performers from various genres in immersive events. In 2021, Parker was a Rome Prize Fellow in Design at the American Academy in Rome, where he developed Futurist Opera, a project incorporating wearable sound suits and experimental instruments. He is the Artistic Director of Collide Arts, an organization focused on interdisciplinary performance, and has served as an associate professor of music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he directed the trombone studio and new music ensemble.
Parker's work includes sculpture, composition, and performance. He incorporates salvaged musical instruments and collaborates with ensembles such as community choirs, marching bands, urban bat colonies, and flocks of grackles to explore themes related to systems of control and interspecies behavior. Many of his projects incorporate audience participation.
As a trombonist, Parker has premiered over 200 new works, often utilizing extended techniques and electronics. Parker performs with the contemporary ensemble Signal in New York and has appeared at various venues and festivals. His work has been presented at institutions and events including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's in/SIGHT series, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, MASS MoCA, SXSW, and Tanglewood. His work includes multidisciplinary collaborations that incorporate elements of performance, installation, and audience participation.

## Notable works

* Bat/Man (2016) – A composition created for the Fusebox Festival in Austin, incorporating bat echolocation calls alongside human performers using conch shells, funnel pipes, and megaphones. The performance took place near a colony of approximately 1.5 million bats, combining natural and human-produced sounds.
* Grackle Call (2018) – A soundwalk in downtown Austin that directed participants to the roosting sites of great-tailed grackles. Participants, using binoculars, iPods, and a program guide, encountered live performances, sound installations, and recorded soundscapes along the route, structured similarly to a birding expedition in an urban setting.
* Sound Garden (2019) – A permanent sound installation commissioned by KMFA, Austin's classical radio station. Installed at KMFA's facility, the installation consists of indoor musical sculptures designed to respond to user interaction.
* Foghorn Elegy (2021) – An installation and performance featuring foghorn-like sculptures and a decommissioned communication tower, exploring themes of obsolete nautical communication. Debuted at Laguna Gloria (The Contemporary Austin), the work incorporated handmade brass instruments and maritime signals in a live outdoor event. The performance featured local musicians, including a sousaphone ensemble and vocalists, who activated the sculptures at sunset.
* Futurist Listening (2020–21) – A solo exhibition first presented at CUE Art Foundation in New York (2020) and later at Rich Mix in London (2021). Curated by Marcela Guerrero, the exhibition featured sonic headwear and acoustic sculptures constructed from brass instruments. The works referenced WWII-era audio tactics such as jamming signals, coded messages, and air-raid sirens, reinterpreted in the context of contemporary protest and communication. Pieces such as ASMR Étude (wearable "sound helmets" that play therapeutic audio) and Ghost Box (a touch-activated sculpture emitting coded songs and Morse code) incorporated audience participation.
* Golem (Sculpture Month Houston 2023, SITE Gallery at Sawyer Yards) – An interactive sonic installation exploring themes of AI and mythology through kinetic sculptures and sound elements inspired by the golem legend. The piece was part of The Sleep of Reason – The Fragmented Figure exhibition, curated by Volker Eisele.
* FIGHT SONG (Art League Houston, 2022–2023) – A gallery installation and performance project that reinterprets marching bands in the context of sound and meditation. It featured a suspended sound sculpture constructed from salvaged band instruments and EEG-triggered compositions, alongside live performances with the UTSA marching band.
* Invisible Music – A sound installation incorporating salvaged brass instruments in an interactive musical landscape. Influenced by Erik Satie's Furniture Music, the work invites visitors to engage with sound sculptures blending human and natural soundscapes.
* HOUSTON IS SINKING (Creative Capital Awardee 2025) – A sound art project examining land subsidence through interactive sculptures and a large-scale "foghorn choir" performance in Galveston Bay. The work translates geological data into an evolving sonic environment.

## Influences

Parker's work is influenced by avant-garde music and historical sound practices. He has cited the Deep Listening philosophy of composer Pauline Oliveros as a significant influence on his approach to sound and audience engagement. His projects often incorporate concepts of attentive and participatory listening, as advocated by Oliveros.
Parker's work also references early 20th-century experimental art and music, including the Italian Futurists and composer John Cage. As part of his Rome Prize project, he incorporated influences from Futurist sound experiments and Guglielmo Marconi's early radio innovations to design new sonic performances.
Many of Parker's installations examine the historical use of sound in warfare and surveillance, incorporating elements such as World War II acoustic radar devices, coded military signals, and propaganda techniques.His work frequently repurposes tools originally developed for conflict—such as sirens, megaphones, and communication towers—to explore their use in community-building, protest, and social engagement.

## Awards and Recognition

* Tito's Prize (2018): Awarded by Big Medium in Austin, this prize included a $15,000 grant and a solo exhibition during the East Austin Studio Tour.
* Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize – New Media (2020): An international award based in London for emerging artists. Parker won in the New Media category in 2020.
* Rome Prize (2021): Parker received the Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Design, which supported a residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2021. During the fellowship, he developed Futurist Opera, a project exploring sound in conflict and performance art.
* McKnight Visiting Composer (2023): Parker was appointed a McKnight Visiting Composer by the American Composers Forum, a residency supporting community-based sound projects in Minnesota.
* Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant: Parker received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which provides support for mid-career artists.
* Fulbright Fellowship: Parker was selected as a Fulbright Senior Scholar to National Taiwan University for 2025, as part of an international research and exchange program. Earlier in his career, he also received a Fulbright Fellowship for his artistic projects.
* Creative Capital Award (2025): Parker was named a 2025 Creative Capital grantee for his project Houston is Sinking, which incorporates obsolete navigational tools into a sound art piece addressing land loss.

## Partial discography

* Nearly Extinct with Henry Kaiser / Steve Parker / Damon Smith / Chris Cogburn (Balance Point, 2016)
* Shelter with Ensemble Signal and Bang on a Can (Cantaloupe Music, 2013)