A prize winner at several international music competitions, he appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the world and performed and recorded a number of chamber works.
[3] At 14 he made his solo debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra,[3] and at 16 he traveled to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was taught by Gregor Piatigorsky from 1948 to 1953.
[4][1] At the Paris competition, he met the conductor and cellist Sir John Barbirolli, who was serving as a juror, and asked him about Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, which was little known in the United States and which Parnas had never heard.
"[3] In 1959 he made his New York recital debut, playing works by Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, and Brahms in a performance that "revealed an appreciation of diverse styles" and showed his ability to "manage a wide variety of hues".
[1] Parnas especially enjoyed performing in the Soviet Union, to which he made several concert tours, appreciating the reponsiveness of the audiences and the opportunity to improve Soviet–American relations.