Principal Percussionist Lee Parham‘s percussion journey began at the tender age of 4, when most children are still mastering the art of building block towers. Instead, Lee was already tickling the ivories, eventually expanding his rhythmic empire to include all manner of things one can satisfyingly hit, strike, or musically tap.
He earned a Bachelor of Music in Education from Henderson State University, a Master of Music from the University of Oklahoma, and is ABD for a Doctor of Musical Arts from OU. His career includes stints in the Fort Smith and Arkansas Symphonies, performing as a founding member of the Oklahoma Percussion Quartet, and appearing on the Fort Smith Symphony’s Naxos recordings of William Grant Still’s music. When not coaxing beautiful sounds from marimbas (his specialty is in 20th-century solo works), Lee has shared his love of percussion as a clinician at numerous festivals and as a professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, Ouachita Baptist University, and even Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, China. He joined the Little Rock Winds in 2021.
