BIERY, MARILYN PERKINS (b. 1959)

Marilyn Perkins Biery, AAGO (born July 1, 1959) is Co-Choir Director and Organist at the Cathedral of St. Paul, a position she has held since 1996. Prior to moving to Minnesota, Marilyn was Director of Music at St. Michael'’s Cathedral in Springfield, Massachusetts and also served the First Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut as Director of Music Ministries for ten years.

 

On May 28, 1999 Marilyn completed the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Minnesota, where she was a Brown/Hutchinson Scholar. She began working on her DMA in 1994 at the University of Connecticut, where she was in the conducting/theory program, finishing as an organ performance major. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

 

Marilyn’'s professional positions include being Region VI Coordinator for Professional Concerns for the American Guild of Organists and being Director of the AGO National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. Her music/texts are published by Oregon Catholic Press, GIA, MorningStar and Alliance Publications, Inc.

 

"Gentle Grace" is a work for a cappella choir written by Marilyn Biery which is compelling and beautifully expressive. It utilizes one of her favorite Early American tunes, "Tender Thought." Composed and written from the heart, it is a text which needs to be felt to be authentic and musically convincing. The change in ms. 43 to duple-meter surges with dance-like feelings and brings joy and confidence filled with hope —and buoyancy to anyone'’s spirit.