Melodious Menus
Where Food and Music Meet
For nearly fifteen years, West Virginia Wesleyan College choral conductor Dr. Larry Parsons hosted an end-of-year dinner for graduating seniors — an elevated five-course meal that mirrored the cultural dining experiences he created for students on choir tour. When Dr. Parsons retired, he reached out to one of his former Concert Chorale members — our studio's founder — with an idea: turn every menu he had kept into a cookbook, with proceeds supporting an endowment in his name at the college.
A Book That Is Also a Memory
The cookbook spans dinners from 1992 to 2006 and runs over 320 pages. Each menu is paired with that year's tour itinerary and the choral program performed on the road — a decision that transforms the book from a recipe collection into a kind of parallel memoir, with food and music as twin records of a remarkable teaching life.
Designed From the Inside
The visual identity was created from scratch, informed by an insider's understanding of Dr. Parsons' world. Custom watercolor illustrations by a designer on our team wove together food and music iconography — reflecting the elegance of the menus and the breadth of a choral repertoire that ranged from spirituals to 20th century modern arrangements.
Published With Care
The cookbook was published and sold through Blurb.com, with a percentage of each sale directed toward Dr. Parsons' endowed chair. Without institutional marketing support from the college, it didn't reach the full alumni audience it deserved — but for Dr. Parsons, his family, his colleagues, and the former students who found it, the book became exactly what it was meant to be: a beautiful record of something that mattered.
