Simon Preston

Simon Preston’s introduction to the world of church music was as comprehensive as it was formative. He started out as a chorister/organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, before holding prestigious posts at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford and Westminster Abbey (where he was organist and master of the choristers from 1981-87), but it’s arguably not as a church musician that Preston is most remembered. Born in Bournemouth in 1932, he developed an enviable technique that made him one of the leading concert organists of his generation, becoming noted for performances distinguished by their conspicuous clarity, precision and alert rhythmic sense. Preston’s repertoire was wide-ranging: his debut disc famously included Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension, which he learned within the space of a week, and the 100-plus discs that followed featured the complete organ works of J.S. Bach, large-scale works by Liszt and Reubke, as well as music by Ives, Poulenc and Peter Maxwell Davies. Similarly eclectic are his recordings as conductor, which include Lassus and Stravinsky, Purcell and Haydn. He died in 2022, and is remembered as a musician combining versatility, fastidiousness and panache.