Junior Kelly Parker is a standout talent here at H-F. Not only is she in Viking Choir, Viking Ensemble and the Tri-M Honors Society, but she has also branched outside of H-F in regards to her music career, and has touched success.

Parker, along with fellow H-F students Ruby Moxley, Kendall Laven, Jazmin Rhodes, Ave Van Til and former H-F student Mia Starkenburg, have managed to form their own musical group: Six of Spades. 

The band came together towards the end of the 2021-2022 school year in choir, and eventually began rehearsing different songs together at the Flossmoor Community Church. They have stayed committed, and have continued to practice ever since.

Since then, they have gained much recognition and have performed at several community events such as: Flossmoor Community Church services, the Good Gourd Festival this past October, the Flossmoor Evening Market, the senior citizen breakfast here at school and many more events to come.

H-F choir teacher Steve Sifner and history teacher Jon Elfner have been huge supporters of the girl group. Elfner, being musically inclined and also in a band himself, has even offered to workshop with the Spades.

Parker talks about the future of the group.

“I think all six of us have a really strong passion for music and a strong love for eachother and I don’t really know if any of us expect it to go further than high school necessarily, but at least for me, it’s something that makes the high school experience better and more enjoyable.”

As for just Parker herself, her passion for music dates way back.

“I’ve just been singing my whole life. I grew up around pop music and inspiration from music that my older sisters and my parents listened to. I grew up with Taylor Swift and Paramore, those were the first artists that I learned, and I wanted to be like them,” she recalled.

Having some of her favorite songs be released by indie artists, Parker feels a stronger connection to those kinds of artists due to their “smaller, more authentic communities,” as opposed to more mainstream artists, which she hopes to mimic in her own music career later down the road.

“I go in between wanting to be an independent artist and wanting to be signed to a label. I think the end result for me has never really been seeking fame, but more so seeking a community and building an understanding between me and the people who listen to my songs,” she said.

A huge honorable stepping stone for Parker has been her early acceptance to AMDA (The American Music and Dramatic Academy–in LA).

As it’s been her dream school since freshman year, it would be an understatement to say that Parker was simply just excited when she got accepted into the school as a musical theater/production major back in October. 

She reminisces on her initial reaction to her acceptance.

“I found out at school in class, and I was freaking out because after I did my audition in August I had been waiting and when I finally found out I was super excited, I think I actually cried. I want to say the first person that I called was my grandmother because she had been my biggest supporter since I was little and was paying for voice lessons and piano lessons and my keyboard.” 

Look out for Kelly Parker in the future; it’s safe to say that we’ve got a rising star on our hands.