Her interest in music outside the classical tradition has led her to perform with the Jazz Passengers, the Anthony Braxton Tri Centric Ensemble, Caetano Veloso, Bjork, percussonist Alex Cline and Zeena Parkins' The Phantom Orchard Orchestra. As an orchestral performer, Parkins has performed under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle, Oliver Knussen, and Andre Previn.
An active recording artist as well, Parkins has recorded extensively with harpist Zeena Parkins and with accordionist Guy Klusevsek and Eclipse and can be heard on the Tzadik, Avan, New World, Bridge and Victo labels.
Ms. Parkins has performed around the world at prestigious venues including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Festival Internacional de Musica de Cadaques (Spain), Heidelberg Castle Festival, Spoleto (USA and Italy), the Taktlos Festival (Switzerland), the Scarlatti Festival in Naples, Tanglewood Festival, the Bach Aria Festival in New York and the Wels Festival Unlimited.
She attended the Eastman School of Music and has a doctorate from SUNY at Stony Brook. She taught cello and chamber music at the University of California, Irvine for 19 years and currently teaches cello at Pomona College.
