JAN PRESTON is also recognised as one of Australia’s leading female film composers.

Jan began writing music for theatre and dance in the late 1970s, and was led into film via a documentary for NZ actor, Sam Neill. Thus began a love affair with the screen which has resulted in her scoring for hundreds of documentaries and seven feature films.

Her recent TV credits include the ABC TV drama series "Bastard Boys", the theme music to "Australian Story", the 5th "Australian Dynasties" documentay series, and the short contemporary drama "Betty and Joe".

She also loves to compose live music for silent films and has performed 15 of these for the National Film and Sound Archive, MCA, Wellington and Sydney Film Festivals. Her performance of an original score for the Harold Lloyd classic "Girl Shy" won the audience vote for "Most Popular Film 2006" in the Sydney Film Festival.

Jan has won 3 industry awards for her film scores, the Listener NZ film and TV awards for the feature film "Illustrious Energy", AGSC Best Music In A Documentary for the film "An Imaginary Life", and the Asian Film Festival best Music award for the feature film "Pictures".

Jan was also screen composition lecturer at the Australian Film, TV and Radio School from 1997 to 1999, still lectures there occasionally, and has been on the committee of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers for the past 18 years.

Her most unusual film employment was giving Jane Campion piano lessons in her research for The Piano.

In her own words "I find the process of adding music to the sound effects and dialogue of a film endlessly fascinating and totally obsessive. The layers of emotion and non emotion possible from the underscore, the way the pictures are altered forever to the viewer by the addition of music, is a complex and fragile creative process. The music has to somehow emerge from the world of the film."