She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston).
Parcells was a winner of the 1977 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York City and was awarded a Pro Musicis Foundation sponsorship which helped launch her professional singing career.
During her concert career, Parcells sang at international festivals such as Tanglewood, Salzburg, Touraine, Bologne, Colorado, Luxembourg, Melk, Lisbon, Rheingau, Huddersfield and Torino.
Her roles included Olympia in Tales of Hoffmann, Norina in Don Pasquale, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, and the title characters in Lucia di Lammermoor and Maria Stuarda.
After living and working in Europe for over twenty years, where she was married in Germany to Dierk-Eckhard Becker, Hamburg in 1985, Parcells returned home to Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 1997 to coach voice students at Oakland University in Rochester Hills and at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan.