Harlan D. Parker is the conductor of The Peabody Wind Ensemble and Coordinator of the Music Education Division at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and the Music Director/Conductor of the Peabody Youth Orchestra in the Peabody Preparatory Division.  Under his direction, the Peabody Wind Ensemble has given over 30 world premieres, and has performed at state, regional and national conventions and is considered “among the very top wind bands in the US” (Fanfare Magazine).

The Peabody Wind Ensemble appears on the Naxos label with three CDs; the first, Orff, Bird and Reed, appeared in August 2006. Of the performance of La Fiesta Mexicana on the recording, composer H. Owen Reed writes, "I have just listened, twice, to your brilliant recording of my La Fiesta Mexicana, and I must tell you that it was a thrill to hear my music performed exactly as I always hoped for. Your total understanding of the work showed up on all parameters. Your tempos were on the mark, and the overall conception of the work was superb."  The Orff, Bird and Reed CD was also listed as one of the "Best of the Year Discs for 2006" by Audiophile Audition.  The second CD, Collage: A Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Peabody Institute: 1857 - 2007, was the top classical music download (out of more than 12,000 CDs) on eMusic.com for the first half of April 2007.  Their third CD for Naxos, Trendsetters, was released in the summer of 2009, and the Peabody Wind Ensemble is currently recording The Symphonies of Johan de Meij for the Naxos label.

Dr. Parker is a Past-President of The Conductors Guild, and is also a member The American Bandmasters Association, an organization whose membership is by invitation and recognizes "outstanding achievement in the field of the concert band and its music."  He is active regionally, nationally and internationally as a guest conductor, conducting pedagogue, clinician and adjudicator, having worked with professional musicians and students from all 50 states and over 40 countries.

In his first year as a faculty member at Peabody, Dr. Parker reorganized the Peabody Wind Ensemble in its present format after several years of non-existence and was awarded the Peabody Student Council Faculty/Administration Award for outstanding contributions to the Peabody Community. In the fall of 2000, Dr. Parker accepted the first graduate class of Wind Conducting students.  Graduates and students of the program are teachers and conductors in high schools and colleges and military bands, with two recent Masters students accepting positions as conductors with the United States Air Force.  Dr. Parker received his Bachelor of Music from Emporia State University and his Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education with an emphasis in Conducting from the University of Kansas and has completed post-doctoral work at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York.