Marvin Parks

I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland in Dec 1976 and began singing at age four, after my mother Zelma taught me the hymn "At the Cross" and I sang on a youth Sunday at the New Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. While I was audience shy and didn't like singing solos, I always felt more comfortable singing in the choir.I sang jazz for the first time at age 15, when I participated in the NAACP's ACT-SO prgram, an "olympics of the mind" for minority high school students. I sang "Nature Boy", a song made famous by the legendary Nat King Cole, and was awarded the Gold Medal in the Music Vocal Cometmporary category. I have been into jazz ever since. The following year, I recieved an Honorable Mention and the year after that won first place in the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity's Talent Hunt in the Vocal Contemporary for my rendition of another Nat King Cole classic, "Somewhere Along the Way".I attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, and The Baltimore School for the Arts before graduating fron Randallstown High School in 1995. Afterwards, I attended Morgan State University, where I had the chance to perform with their renowned University Choir and I attended Towson Unversity where I studied jazz performance with singer Ruby Glover and saxophonist Gary Thomas. In the summer of 2000, I traveled to the Chicago suburb of Naperville, IL to attend the Janice Borla Vocal Jazz Camp at North Central College, where I worked with singer Jay Clayton. In 2004, I attended a Master Class given by(and later ate dinner with) the awesome Sheila Jordan. It was held at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.In 2001, I finished second in the 12th Annual Mayor's Billie Holiday Vocal Competition. While a man has NEVER won first place in the 16 year history of this contest, I am only the second of three men to finish second. The following year, I was named a finalist again becoming the first male singer to reach the finals twice and the only one to do so in consecutive years. I would be selected again in 2003 and 2004. I am the only male singer to named a semi-finalist four years in a row in this competition.In December 2001, I was invited by Balltimore jazz station to join panel of noted Baltimore musicians to discuss the life and career of Nat King Cole and recorded released for radio airplay "The Christmas Song(Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)".In April 2002, I was among a group of jazz musicians from around various parts of the country and the world selected for Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead Residency Program. This 10 day residency, held at Washington DC's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is for jazz musicians under the age of 30 who are both performers and composers. It afforded me opportunity to not only meet and work with some the greatest young jazz talent ever, but I got the chance to work with pianist Eric Reed, vocalist Carmen Lundy, her brother bassist Curtis Lundy, trombonist Curtis Fuller, drummer Winard Harper, and saxophonist Dr. Nathan Davis, who served as the program's director. It is an experienece, I will never forget. Later that year, I was invited to open for the R&B group The Mighty O'Jays at a private event sponsored by the Black McDonald's Franchisees.