Will Parker; Baritone’s Poem Collection Became AIDS Songbook

Will Parker, 49, an operatic baritone whose collection of poems and lyrics about AIDS was set to music and performed as the “AIDS Quilt Songbook.” A native of Butler, Pa., Parker sang with the Army Chorus and went on to win the Baltimore Opera Competition in 1970. He sang opera in Austria, the Netherlands and throughout the United States. In 1991, Parker began gathering poems and lyrics by or about people with AIDS. American composers turned the works into songs, and Parker and colleagues performed the premiere of the “AIDS Quilt Songbook” on June 4, 1992, at Alice Tully Hall. The collection is to be released by Nightingale Records. On Monday in New York of AIDS.