Faculty Highlight Featured Stories Highlights

Faculty Highlight: Dion Parson

Samantha HarlowOctober 6, 2025Comments Off069

UVI Faculty play an important role in guiding, inspiring, and shaping the lives of the Buc student body. Many of our Faculty have gone on to inspire the brightest and the best across the region and around the world. In honour of UVI’s beacons of light, every month will be bringing you a Faculty Highlight – giving you a deeper dive into the familiar faces you see daily around campus.

We begin our series with jazz musician extraordinaire and UVI Chair of the Communications and Performing Arts Department, Dion Parson.

Who is Dion Parson?

Dion Parson was born on St. Thomas, USVI on June 11, 1967. I am a product of the Virgin Islands public school system. I attended Dober Elementary School, Wayne Aspinal Jr. HS and Charlotte Amalie HS. I also attended Rutgers University and received a Bachelors in Music Education and a Masters in Jazz Performance.

Dion Parson is currently serving as the Chair of the Communication and Performing Arts Department at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Dion Parson is an active member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. for over 30 years.

When did you know music was going to be your path in life?

I knew at a young age that I was going to be perusing music. I decided in high school that I was going to make a career in music after spending the summer at Interlochen Arts Summer Camp in 1982. Additional, in 1985 I was awarded the honor to represent the Virgin Islands as a member of the McDonalds All-American High School Band. This experience helped to solidified my decision to become a professional musician.

What inspired you to expand your passion for music performance to instruction?

I always saw music through the eyes of an educator, as most of my mentors were music teachers. Dr. Leroy Trotman was a huge influence on me. He was very active as a performer in several bands, and he is an accomplished music educator. My time spent with him allowed me to see music from the performance side and the education side. Therefore, upon entering into college I decided to study Music Education for undergraduate studies and Jazz Performance for my graduate school studies. I saw myself as a performing educator.

What makes teaching at UVI so special?

Teaching at UVI is very special to me, as I attended UVI while I was in high school. I took music courses and actively participated in a number of performance ensembles. Additionally, I received a scholarship to attend UVI upon graduation from high school. While living in NYC for 30 plus years, I always thought that if I ever moved back home, it would be to teach at UVI. So, here I am, living back in the Virgin Islands and teaching at UVI. I guess dreams do come true after all…

What is one of the most memorable stages you have shared with your students?

Well, this is a difficult question, as I have several memorable performances and moments that I have shared with my students. However, I must say that one of the most memorable moments has to be last year’s UVI Charter Day Concert at the Prior Jollek Hall at Antilles School sticks out as such a moment. We invited Mr. Steve Turre to be our special guest with our UVI Concert Band and Jazz Band. That was an amazing night of music for our UVI and VI community. Everyone in attendance expressed their gratitude for the student ensembles and the special guest. Our students performed well and we had so much fun.

You have travelled the world sharing your gift of music. Which country/town/island/etc. (outside of the USVI) have you visited that poured into you in an unexpected way?

I’ve spent over thirty years as a professional musician and have travelled all over the world performing. I have my top six places that I enjoy performing at, and they are Africa, Greece, Brazil, Japan, New York City and home, right here in the Virgin Islands.

Define Success.

Success in the Music Business is really defined by longevity and partnerships, as far as being a performing musician. I consider myself to be an educator and performer, which gives me options to sustain my career. I love teaching and I love performing, therefore I am happy with my success as I am doing what I love.

What are your hopes for the music program at UVI?

The UVI Music program is a very unique and program. We offer degrees in Music Education, BFA in Performance and a Certificate in Music Engineering. With UVI being located in the Caribbean, our students get to a part of the HBCU experience, while receiving a well-rounded education. Our music students learn the fundamentals of music education from a well-versed faculty, and they also get a full Caribbean Cultural experience as well. Our students participate in our steel pan ensemble, concert band, concert choir and jazz ensemble. Our music program serves not only the US Virgin Islands education community by providing 85% of our music teachers, but we also serve the entire Eastern Caribbean as well. We have graduated students from Angilla, Antigua, Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, as well as the US Mainland. Additionally, we have several exchange students every year and they take music classes while visiting our University as part of their cultural exchange requirements.

I see a bright future for our UVI Music Program as we continue to serve our Virgin Island community, the Caribbean, and our National and International students.

Why does what you do matter?

I think this is a very interesting question. Being an educator, especially one that deals with the creative arts, requires a level of discipline, focus and commitment to oneself and to the one’s art. One of my main reasons for moving back home was to be a contributor in assisting with the development of our talent pool here in the Virgin islands. I found myself teaching around the world in various situations and what I realized was that we have an abundance of talent right here in the VI that is comparable to the rest of the world. I wanted to tap into our talent pool and make sure that our students were prepared to compete on a national and international level. However, there was a gap that needed to be filled in terms of preparing our students for the next level of music education, which was entering college, and beyond.

I decided to be the conduit to fill that gap. Getting our students prepared through private lessons, repertoire development, music theory and jazz improvisation has allowed our young musicians to be able to perform several styles of music as a way to develop themselves musically and to be more versatile and competitive in the overall job market. This type of mentoring involves all music educators from K through 12 working together to make sure our Virgin Islands talent pool remains sustainable. This also allows for our Virgin Islands cultural music, to include Quelbe, Calypso, Soca and Reggae Music to be sustainable as well.

The key is for our musicians and our community to understand that being a professional musician is a viable art form (job) and it can provide a very substantial living if done correctly. It doesn’t have to be viewed as a hobby.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in Music and/or Music Education?

Here are my top five suggestions for aspiring musicians.

Find a mentor/musician that you trust, and you feel can teach you on your specific instrument. Take private lessons with this person. It is important to have individual guidance on your instrument.

Have specific goals you would like to accomplish to include your short-term goals and long-term goals. This is important for growth and assessment, and this is something that your private lesson teacher can assist you with. (Have a development plan for yourself).