Simon Preston

Simon John Preston (4 August 1938 – 13 May 2022) was an English organist, conductor and composer who was admired as one of the most important English church musicians of his generation. Family and education Preston was born in Bournemouth, Dorset, to John Preston, an architectural draughtsman, and Doreen Lane, and was introduced to music at an early age. His uncle played the organ at the church that his family attended, and he was inspired to take up the instrument at the age of 5 after hearing a recording of George Thalben-Ball. He later studied under Caleb Henry Trevor at the Royal Academy of Music before returning to King’s College as organ scholar under David Willcocks. He first came to attention when he accompanied the college choir at the service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve in 1958. Admired as “one of the most important English church musicians of his generation”, he died on 13 May 2022 at the age of 83. Compositions and recordings From the 1960s onwards, Preston composed a number of works for the organ, the best-known of which is probably his Alleluyas, written in 1965 in the style of Olivier Messiaen. Recordings of his organ works originally made in the 1960