Navigator Alumni Doug Parsons ’81 and Susannah Hornsby ’01 to Perform at Homecoming 2026

Every fall, Homecoming weekend is a joyful celebration of the entire Hampton Roads Academy community—current students, families, faculty and staff past and present, and especially our alumni, lifelong Navigators who have a home on Academy Lane no matter when they graduated or how far away they have moved.

This year’s Homecoming festivities will be especially meaningful, brought to life with music performed live by two alumni celebrating landmark class reunions.

Guitarist and singer Doug Parsons ’81, in town for his forty-fifth reunion, will treat his fellow Navigators to a mix of classic rock, swing, and hits from all class years represented during the All-Alumni Tailgate on the evening of Friday, October 23. Parsons will also serve as an honorary host of the event, a prelude to that night’s varsity football game.

The following evening, accordionist and vocalist Susannah Hornsby ’01, marking a quarter-century since her graduation from HRA, will get her fellow alumni on their feet as her band Susie & the Pistols puts on a lively “Cajun-tonk” performance at an on-campus reunion party for classes ending in ones and sixes. The niece of singer-songwriter Bruce Hornsby, a non-graduating HRA alumnus known for such songs as the 1986 hit “The Way It Is” with the Range, Hornsby will be joined on bass by her father Bobby Hornsby, also a former HRA student.

The two alumni performances will be a testament not only to the incredible musical abilities that many of HRA’s graduates began cultivating at the Academy, but also to Navigators’ investment in the community that gathers on campus each October.

“Having alumni play here on campus lands differently, because it makes it feel more like a true homecoming or a family gathering,” said Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83, who invited Parsons and Hornsby to provide the weekend’s entertainment. “It has a more comfortable vibe with heightened appreciation not only for their talents, but for our shared roots or teenage beginnings. As a fellow alum, I’ll feel like I’d be welcome to pick up a shaky rhythm egg and add some beat to the song being played—just as I would at my own family Thanksgiving post-dinner song time.”

Solitary Harmonies by Doug Parsons: A Lifelong Passion Rediscovered

Performing under the name Solitary Harmonies, Parsons was thrilled by the opportunity to bring his guitar and his voice back to the school where he laid a foundation for his musical career, playing in a rock band during his senior year.

“I loved HRA,” he said. “I had a blast there.” 

As a student who transferred to the Academy from Menchville High School in the eleventh grade, Parsons recalled that “going to HRA from public school was like going to college.” He credited several “phenomenal” former faculty members—from math and English teacher Dr. Fran Ward (née Cunningham) and history teachers Wilson Ellis and Jim Holt to his track coach Larry Knight (also an art teacher) and his football coach and athletic director Tom Henderson—with helping him learn strong study habits and the focus and discipline that have guided him toward success throughout his career.

At HRA, he developed into a distinguished athlete, playing basketball and throwing shot put and discus while also setting himself apart on the gridiron. Alongside fellow Navigator and eventual HRA head football coach David Legg ’80, he would continue playing football at Hampden-Sydney College, starting and earning all-conference honors each of his four years on the team. After he graduated, the San Diego Chargers invited him to try out to play at the professional level, but he passed on this opportunity because his sights were set on the other passion that would determine the trajectory of his life: being a rock-and-roller.

Coming from a family of athletes and artists, Parsons deeply valued the opportunities he discovered at HRA to excel in music as well as sports. Like football, performing would be a constant between his HRA and Hampden-Sydney years, as he found himself joining a band again. But music would follow him beyond college, through work with a local band, a church choir, and companies for which he recorded jingles.

Parsons pursued music while building a career in the plumbing and HVAC industry and later in construction and renovations. He eventually established his own company, D.A. Parsons Construction, in Chesapeake, which afforded him the immensely rewarding opportunity to hire local high school graduates for an apprenticeship program that launched numerous successful careers. In the 2000s, the strain of a grueling performance schedule alongside the pressures of running a business led him to make the difficult decision to step away from music.

But four years ago, an invitation from his church choir director got him back into playing the guitar. Now semi-retired, working only occasionally as a service technician for the Thompson Creek Window Company, he delights in the freedom to focus his energies on performing and building his talents in a wide array of genres.

Parsons’ current act includes both acoustic and classical guitar with a percussion accompaniment and complex harmonies to create the sound of a full band. He caters his musical style to the taste of his varied audiences, from flamenco and faith music (which he creates as music director for Tidewater Emmaus, a local Christian community organization) to country and, of course, classic rock.

Having attended multiple HRA class reunions, most recently his fortieth in 2021, Parsons noted that he eagerly looks forward not only to his performance at the All-Alumni Tailgate, but also his first-ever on-campus reunion party. He expressed his excitement to reconnect with classmates as well as underclassmen with whom he grew close as a member of HRA’s tight-knit, grade-crossing student community.

Susie & the Pistols: Connecting with Community through Music

For Hornsby, this fall’s multi-class reunion will be her first since she graduated from HRA. As she explained, she could think of no better time than the milestone of 25 years to return to campus, see how familiar spaces have physically transformed, and catch up with fellow Navigators.

Surrounded by a range of athletes, artists, and scholars in her class, Hornsby said, “I really loved that HRA allowed me to access different ways of being in the world.” The budding performer had diverse interests, and at the Academy, she felt supported in exploring them all. She was a strong student and softball player, captain of the varsity field hockey team, a talented guitarist and member of the chorus, and a regular lead in yearly musicals.

“I didn’t need to be defined by one or more of the things I was doing,” she said. “If I had the time and the bandwidth, I could show up authentically in any number of spaces.”

Combined with a broad-based liberal arts education, the wide variety of opportunities available to her at HRA shaped Hornsby’s path after graduation. Inspired by language arts teachers like Ric Beard and Shannon Casey, her theatre director Mike Oehmann, and her forensics coach Connie Holmes, she decided to major in English literature at the University of Virginia. Perhaps no one helped her find her voice as a performer and storyteller more than former HRA Middle and Upper School choral director Robin Steinberger, “a real champion of the arts” whose farewell concert upon her retirement in 2023 last brought Hornsby back to HRA. She still considers her relationships with these faculty members to be the foundation of her current career in marketing and consulting, the heart of which is vivid storytelling on behalf of small businesses.

Hornsby founded her own marketing firm while living in New York after college. While there, she also played in a band and met her husband, Andrew Green, a fellow musician. When the couple moved back to Hornsby’s home state in 2013, they formed Susie & the Pistols with friends in Charlottesville as a way to keep music-making on the calendar alongside their busy careers.

Blending honky-tonk, zydeco, outlaw country, and the blues, the Pistols, said their frontwoman, create “music that feels good for easy afternoons.” Along with Hornsby on accordion and lead vocals, the band features a bassist, a guitarist, a drummer, and a rotating cast of horn players and keyboardists. Susie & the Pistols have brought their distinctive Americana sound to venues across the Commonwealth, and they will soon release a new album, titled Wander.

“It’s always really fun to be in community and in family around music,” Hornsby said. She could think of no clearer proof than her upcoming gig at HRA, when she will play alongside her husband and father for an audience of old friends.

A Weekend of Excitement

Hornsby’s and Parsons’ performances promise to elevate a weekend full of highlights at HRA, October 23-24.

Capping off an energetic Spirit Week, the All-Alumni Tailgate, starting at 5:00 pm on Friday, will allow Navigators from throughout the decades to celebrate with one another and with past and current faculty members as they gear up for the Homecoming football game at 6:30. Solitary Harmonies by Doug Parsons will lend a nostalgic groove to the event, complete with delicious libations and bites prepared by HRA’s own Executive Chef Uwe Schluszas. Held in the picnic area adjacent to Lester Grace Field, the tailgate will transition seamlessly into the game. The entire Navigator community will cheer on Coach Rodney Taylor and his varsity players during a much-anticipated matchup under the lights against The Covenant School.

On Saturday evening, classes observing reunions will gather on campus once more for a party in the state-of-the-art Mary and Larry Pope Dining Hall, where Chef Uwe will serve up gourmet heavy hors d’oeuvres and Susie & the Pistols will bring down the house. Student-led campus tours will begin at 4:45 pm, and the doors will open at 6:00. Spanning all eras of HRA’s history, the reunion celebration will make for a night of laughs, memories, and Navigator spirit.

Registration for all 2026 Homecoming events is open now. This beloved fall tradition will be an occasion no HRA alumnus will want to miss.