University of Houston Moores School of Music adds John Alden Carpenter posters to its Special Collections

The Moores School of Music at University of Houston added two posters by the artist Rex Parker of the jazz-age classical composer John Alden Carpenter. The artwork is earmarked for the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections.

“I am so pleased these posters are a part of the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections,” said Parker. Professor Howard Pollack’s biography of Carpenter, Skyscraper Lullaby: The Life and Music of John Alden Carpenter was an inspiration to Parker in creating these dynamic Art Deco posters.

Designed for the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, posters celebrating composer John Alden Carpenter mirror his lofty, buoyant energy. Hailed by longtime New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Walter Damrosch as “the most American of our composers,” Carpenter was a Park Ridge native; son of the municipality’s first mayor, George Carpenter; and related to the Aldens of Early American fame.

Carpenter’s whimsical suite, Adventures in a Perambulator was on the docket for Walt Disney’s planned sequel to Fantasia. His innovative ballet, Skyscrapers, which enjoyed success in New York and Munich, was the only American work commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.