Simon Preston

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Simon Preston (born 4 August 1938, Bournemouth, England) is an internationally acclaimed concert organist.

Originally a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, he studied the organ with C. H. Trevor before returning to King's as organ scholar. He was sub-organist of Westminster Abbey from 1962-67, and organist of Christ Church, Oxford from 1970 before returning to Westminster as Organist and Master of the Choristers in 1981. He relinquished his Westminster post in 1987, and has since led an international concert career, and has also composed works for the organ, the best-known of which is probably his "Alleluyas", written in the style of Olivier Messiaen.

His playing approach, always very clean and precise, has mellowed from the fiery and incisive style of his younger days, to the more sedate and comfortable now, though always with mastery of the instrument and the work in question. He has many recordings to his credit, including the complete works of J. S. Bach for Deutsche Grammophon. He has recorded Handel's complete organ concertos twice: with Yehudi Menuhin conducting the Bath Festival Orchestra and later on historical instruments with Trevor Pinnock directing The English Concert.