Parker Jayne · 2004 Honoree

Parker Jayne has been making music on Capitol Hill for twenty-five years. It started when he was asked to play the piano accompaniment for a musical tribute to Jerome Kern at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. He agreed to, loved it, and went on to work with CHAW founder Sally Crowell as musical director of a dozen reviews and musical comedies, working with scores of adults and scads of children. Two different performing groups grew out of these workshop collaborations – the Not So Playne Jayne Trio, a jazz ensemble, and the Jaynettes featuring Parker on the piano and four “vintage” women belting out rock ‘n roll and doo wop. And ten years ago Parker was a founder of the Capitol Hill Chorale, an auditioned 80-voice chorus firmly rooted in our community. “Music,” says Parker, “is a wonderful way I can contribute.”

Although he played the cello as well as the piano at college, music has had to vie with many other interests in Parker’s life. He was one of five Russian majors in his class at Harvard and has long been fascinated with the language, literature and history of Russia (which he pursued at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California). In college, he spent every fall and spring afternoon sailing on the Charles River as captain of his college sailing team, and he went on to serve in the Navy during the last years when navigation was actually done using a sextant and star sightings, a process that enthralled him. His professional life has taken him from fifteen years with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (later the Office of Thrift Supervision) to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, an agency created in 1993 to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And he coached his son’s and daughter’s Soccer on the Hill soccer teams for seven years, ran the Capitol Hill Classic footrace to benefit the Cluster Schools and served several terms on the Board of CHAW including one as treasurer and one as president.

But music has been a constant source of satisfaction and community connection.

Parker has particularly enjoyed the fact that CHAW is a workshop. “That’s the strength of the thing,” he says. "Everyone has a sense of working on something and a certain assurance that they are not going to fail. People can do something that enriches their lives but without risking much.” The Capitol Hill Chorale has remained part of CHAW partly to underscore this community aspect. It maintains a “wonderful, strong spirit” and the “right balance” of serious commitment to music and social cohesion.

Parker and his wife, Mary, live on Lincoln Park. Their son, Toby, works for an investment management company in Philadelphia and is newly engaged to be married. Alice, their daughter, lives in Boston where she works as a para-legal; she will be going to law school in the fall. Parker has fond memories of directing both kids in CHAW musicals.

Next up for Parker musically: the accordion. He’s studying with a Bulgarian teacher, learning a range of styles including complex Balkan polyrhythms. He’s also been singing in Bulgarian. Now that’s something to look forward to hearing!