You can hear pianist Jon Kimura Parker with the R.I. Philharmonic Friday and Saturday in Providence.

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is no stranger to the first Brahms concerto, a work he will play Saturday night with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. It was the piece he picked for the finals of the Leeds Competition in England, when he won that event in 1984. And he just played it last fall in San Antonio with, of all people, Rhode Island Philharmonic conductor Larry Rachleff, who is also music director of that orchestra.

“It was great. It was glorious,” said Parker on the phone this week. “So I’m raring to go.”

Parker said he had never played the Brahms before entering the Leeds. At that point he was looking for opportunities to try out new concertos with an orchestra.

“I thought if I made it to the finals I’d get to play this great masterpiece with an orchestra and what could be better than that. But then I talked to my teacher and friends and they said, ‘Are you out of your mind? When you get to the finals you want to play something you know.’ ”

Over the years Parker has come to view the Brahms as a work with the subtle balances of chamber music, and one that showcases the keyboard. Today, he feels he is able to juggle both aspects of the music.

He said he is especially fond of the hymn-like second movement. Playing it, he always thinks he has ended up in church, he said.

Actually it’s no coincidence that Parker and Rachleff found themselves on the same stage last fall. They both teach at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston and are fast friends.

“I truly think Larry is a god,” said Parker from his home in Houston. “In a lot of ways, he defines the Shepherd School of Music.”

Parker is just coming off a few weeks of down time during the holidays. But he did have a busy fall, one in which he managed to play seven different concertos with 11 orchestras, and that didn’t include the Tchaikovsky First he played in Indianapolis New Year’s Day. Most pianists take around a couple of concertos.

On Tuesday morning he was out running errands and dropping 8-year-old daughter, Sophie, off at school.

Parker has been at Rice for the past seven years, and flies home to teach each week no matter where he’s performing in the county. He schedules his international tours when school is out. In fact he has to be back in Houston this Sunday afternoon for a 3 p.m. concert by a viola student he has been working with. So he will be driving up to Boston the morning after his concert here to catch a non-stop flight.

“I adore my students,” he said. “I find them very inspirational.” But he does manage to spend a lot of time in his native Canada, where he often ends up playing in pretty remote spots. Parker belongs to an outreach group called Piano Plus, musicians who perform in far-flung corners of Canada for audiences who rarely, if ever, get to hear live music.

He recalled playing in a small town in Baffin Island, just south of the Arctic Circle, with one paved road. There was no piano to be had, not even a bad upright. So Parker lugged in his own electronic keyboard with an amplifier, and performed Beethoven in a 100-seat movie theater.

“It’s a wonderful project,” he said.

Parker grew up in Vancouver and by all accounts was a precocious student. At age 5, he appeared with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra. He once told of getting lost in the first violin section as he made his way on stage. The concertmaster had to lead him by the hand to the piano.

Even in the first grade, when his fellow students were thinking about careers as firemen, Parker knew he wanted to be a concert pianist.

Parker went on to study at Juilliard and his career was launched with the important Leeds Competition.

Come summers, Parker runs a music festival on Orcas Island in Washington with his violinist wife Aloysia Friedmann. His pianist brother, Jamie Parker often performs with them.

In the 1980s, he was active as a broadcaster in Canada, hosting popular radio and television shows about music.

And he has also done a fair amount of recording, including an unusual version of Mozart’s 21st concerto. Parker, who often plays rock during student concerts, managed to slip the theme from Star Trek into a cadenza for the recording. But it was so subtle, the conductor and producer didn’t detect it.

“It seems to be in Mozart’s character to take an opportunity like that,” he said.

Jon Kimura Parker plays Brahms with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday at 8 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $27 to $65, with discounts for seniors, students and groups. Call (401) 248-7000 or log on to www.riphil.org.

Parker can also be heard tomorrow evening during an open rehearsal that runs from 5:30 to 8 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $27, $12 for students.

cgray@projo.com