Carol Montparker has been enjoying a dual career as pianist and writer. She was a protegée of Leopold Mittman, studied also with Josef Fidelman, and Angela Weschler at the New York College of Music, and has been coached by Jerome Lowenthal, Claude Frank, Horacio Gutierrez, and André Watts. Montparker majored in music at Queens College, where she won the Orchestral Society Award, granted to the “most outstanding instrumentalist on campus." She gave her New York debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1976, about which Donal Henahan of the The New York Times wrote “a splendid debut by a pianist who starts where others leave off”, and has since appeared in solo and chamber recitals across the country, including performances on WNYC and WQXR.

Ms. Montparker’s CD's, Pianogarden I and II, recorded in live concert, have been praised by artists and critics including Harold C. Schonberg; Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times, called her “a real artist, whose playing is unfailingly graceful and affecting.” In 1998 Montparker was invited by Steinway & Sons to join the distinguished official roster of Steinway Artists.

Montparker’s second book, A Pianist’s Landscape (Amadeus Press), has been receiving enthusiastic reviews resulting in frequent invitations for book-talks and lecture-recitals in universities (including the Juilliard School of Music, Yale University School of Music, UCLA, Queens College, Mannes College of Music,) at piano festivals, and music education conferences. A new book of short stories drawn from a pianist's life, titled The Blue Piano and Other Stories, and a children's book, Polly and the Piano were published by Amadeus Press in 2004.

As senior editor of Clavier for fifteen years, Montparker interviewed world-famous artists for feature stories, reviewed concerts and books. For 15 years she had her own column, Carillon, a personal view of music and how it relates to the other arts, nature, and life. She has won four Awards for Excellence in Journalism from Educational Press of America and has published freelance articles in virtually every music periodical as well as The New York Times and Newsday.

Carol Montparker has maintained a private piano studio at her Huntington residence for many years.

In addition to her professions as pianist and writer, Carol Montparker is a watercolorist. An exciting cross-pollination between her work as a professional musician and as a painter has produced a series of paintings that have appeared on the covers and illustrations within various music magazines and her recent books, including: Polly and the Piano, The Blue Piano and Other Stories, and A Pianist's Landscape. The Pianogarden poster, first seen on the cover of Clavier magazine, of which Montparker was senior editor for fifteen years, was made into a poster as a result of readers' requests. For many years, Ms. Montparker did the illustrations for a children's music magazine, Piano Explorer. The packets of cards on the art page, represent some of the covers she did for Clavier.