Adventures in Pianoland

How blues-boogie-woogie-ragtime-jazz master Jan Preston learned to stop worrying and love the piano.

Known as Australia’s Queen of Boogie Piano, Jan Preston has a reputation as an astonishing piano player with a rich resonant voice who is a magnetic live performer.  In this brand new work Preston spin yarns from dives in Soho to the concert halls of Europe, to stealing a piano in broad daylight from a bar in downtown Wellington, New Zealand’s capital and comes clean on her longstanding and sometimes bumpy road to piano stardom.
 “A wonderfully intimate experience through some of the highs and lows of a talented pianist’s fascinating life and career.” THE DOMINION

Kiwi-born Jan Preston passed exam after exam on the way to a career as a concert pianist, but fate saw her sneaking in the back door of pop with groups like Coup D'Etat, achieving a number one hit with Doctor, I Like Your Medicine, moving to Sydney, becoming a mother, then composer , and the Jan we know today.
This intimate engrossing combination of skilfully performed piano music, images, songs and stories, is masterfully directed by award-winning New Zealand film director Gaylene Preston (Perfect Strangers, Ruby & Rata, Mr Wrong) who also happens to be Jan’s sister.

From Chopsticks to Chopin to Winnie Atwell expect virtuosic playing as Jan candidly spills the beans on her extraordinary experiences as a longstanding performing musician whilst sharing insights, at turns whimsical and shrewd, into our music and culture of the last fifty years.

“What a Long Strange Trip It's Been might have been the title of a best of The Grateful Dead album in 1977, but I wouldn't have minded if Preston had purloined the title for her brilliant one-woman musical biography show”. NZ Stuff

Street Two - Unreserved | Duration 80 minutes without interval.

Piano Giants Live in Canberra:

Experience the rapture of David Helfgott and Jan Preston in Canberra in August. More Information here.