Jan Preston

Jan Preston is a New Zealand-born, Sydney-based pianist, composer and songwriter widely billed as “Australasia’s Queen of Boogie Piano.” Born in Greymouth, she trained classically from childhood — among a handful of students selected nationally for a five-year piano degree at Auckland University — before broadening into theatre, rock and boogie-woogie. She co-founded the band Coup D’État, which scored a number-one hit in 1980, and later toured with Jan Preston’s Boogie Circus. A prolific screen composer, she scored Illustrious Energy (winning Best Music at the 1988 NZ Film and Television Awards), Home by Christmas and My Year with Helen, and her music was the long-running theme for ABC TV’s Australian Story. Reed Music publishes her flute-and-piano work Eat Chocolate and Cry.