Mary Preston is the Resident Organist and Principal/Lay Family Chair with
the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the Lay Family Concert Organ in
the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Ms. Preston has been presented in recital throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia to audiences responding with resounding enthusiasm and excitement. She has performed in such notable locations as the Riverside Church in New York City, the House of Hope in St. Paul, First Congregational Church in Los Angeles, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, St. Nikolai in Leipzig, the Merseburg Cathedral, St. Hedwig Cathedral in Berlin, the Oliwa Cathedral in Poland, and the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague.
Ms. Preston has had the honor of playing the inaugural recitals on two magnificent new C.B. Fisk organs; one in the new Minato Mirai Concert Hall in Yokohama, Japan and the other in the new Benaroya Symphony Hall in Seattle, Washington.
Mary Preston has been a featured artist in numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, including the 2004 national convention in Los Angeles, 2005 regional conventions in Colorado and Connecticut and will be featured in several regional conventions during 2007.
Also, she was the featured artist with the 2004 Oregon Bach Festival. This year included solo recitals in San Jose, California; Norfolk, Virginia; performances at Duke and Yale Universities, Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Palos Verdes Estates, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Augusta, Georgia; and Richmond, Virginia along with performances in Nebraska, Ohio and Washington.
Along with organ concerti and other major works with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Nashville and Denver Symphony Orchestras, the Colorado Springs Chamber Orchestra, and an inaugural concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Preston is also a regular performer with the Dallas Wind Symphony, a role that includes a recording on the Reference label. Her solo performances are frequently aired on National Public Radio’s Pipedreams.
Recognized as an international recording artist, Mary Preston’s recordings on the Meyerson Lay Family Concert Organ on the Gothic and Naxos labels have met with rave reviews.
A magnificent instrument-registered perfectly. Mary Preston’s playing is exciting and impeccable. In short, this is a perfect match of performer, music and organ, and the result is as it should be, a great recording… American Organist (New York)
Mary Preston’s playing is uniformly brilliant. The opening Dupré unfolds in a most satisfying way; the Widor is projected with immense character and yet finesse, while the Duruflé Suite seems to be second nature to her. A wonderful record to which one can return each time to find greater depths. Organist’s Review (London, England)
Ms. Preston graduated with honors and received the Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas as a student of Charles Brown and continued post-graduate study with Russell Saunders at the Eastman School of Music. Her early musical training was with Kathryn McCain and Harold Miller in San Francisco, followed by study with Garth Peacock at the Oberlin Conservatory, John Walker at San Jose University, and Robert Anderson at Southern Methodist University.
The concert management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, Hartford, Connecticut, represents Ms. Preston.
Mary and her husband Joe Preston have been married thirty-seven years. They are originally from the San Francisco area and have lived in Dallas since 1979. They enjoy boating, travel and visiting alpaca ranches in their leisure time.