Fountain Hills Presbyterian worship team celebrates shared birthday

Approximately 30 community members gathered Thursday, July 29, at Que Bueno Mexican restaurant in Fountain Hills to celebrate two Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church (FHPC) musicians who share a birthday on July 29.

FHPC Music Director Debbie Fisher (66) and longtime church pianist and Librarian Dorothy Parris (97) celebrated their birthday together.

FHPC church member Terri Schmidt made all the birthday arrangements including a special birthday cake from Safeway that was designed to look like a piano keyboard.

Parris and Fisher are both accomplished musicians who have worked together for 30 years, bringing music and joy to the FHPC congregation.

Presbyterian musical duo

Parris is an enrolled member of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation who was raised in Haskell, Okla. She began playing piano at the age of six.

When she moved to Tulsa, Okla., Parris began playing for Sunday School, church services, hospitals and service clubs.

Parris married Mose Parris who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Together, they and their three sons lived in the Washington D.C. area for 12 years before moving to Fountain Hills in 1979.

Parris is a charter member of the Arizona Masterworks Chorale and has performed with premier orchestras, conductors and at least three times at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Parris began offering private piano lessons at Fort McDowell in 1982. She currently plays for the Fort McDowell Presbyterian Church every Sunday after leaving the FHPC service.

Fisher was born in Minneapolis, Minn., on July 29, 1957.

Her father was an Air Force sergeant so Fisher started first grade in Germany where her father was stationed before returning to the family farm in Mansfield, S.D.

Fisher has wonderful memories of her small-town Presbyterian church where she and her family worshiped.

At the age of 15, Fisher was singing in the choir and learning to play the piano. She later learned to play the trumpet, baritone and several other instruments, earning a college degree in music education with choral emphasis.

Fisher studied music therapy at Arizona State University and also joined the Arizona Masterworks Choral.

She and her husband Greg joined FHPC in 1990. She was named FHPC music director in 2008.

Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church holds weekly services online or in person every Sunday at 9 a.m. It is located at 13001 N. Fountain Hills Blvd. For more information, visit fhpresbyterian.info or call 480-837-1763.