“Fiercely focused... uncompromising... a bright light cast forward.”
Photo credit: Bill Phelps
“Ground-breaking interdisciplinary performances”
Biography
Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer and pianist based in Minneapolis and New York City who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. She aims to foster understanding and create pathways for change by voicing emotional and human truths through artistic investigation and dissemination.
Prescott’s output includes several large-scale interdisciplinary works, improvised music, opera, sound journaling, film music, solo and chamber concert works. Featured in “21 for ‘21: Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow,” The Washington Post describes her work as “a bright light cast forward... uncompromising,” and “masterfully envisioned.”
Prescott is an awardee of the McKnight Composer Fellowship; the Princess Grace Award; the National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts; a National Performance Network Documentation and Storytelling Grant; a New Music USA Project Grant; an American Composers Forum Create Commission supported by the Jerome Foundation; The American Opera Project Composers and the Voice Fellowship; an Opera America New Works Forum Grant; a Puffin Foundation Grant; and several state and regional awards. She has been commissioned by Roulette Intermedium, The Great Northern Festival, Living Arts of Tulsa, Public Functionary, White Snake Projects, Chautauqua Opera, The American Opera Project, Piano Teachers Congress of NY, Shepherdess Duo, Metropolis Ensemble, and Duo Harmonia. She has held artist residencies with The Camargo Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Roulette Intermedium, Lanesboro Arts, Hudson Hall, Areté Venue and Gallery, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, The League of Independent Theater, Arts Letters and Numbers, and Chautauqua Opera. She has been a Mabou Mines SUITE/Space Artist, and a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Emerging Artist.
Mary currently sits on the board of the National Performance Network.
She holds piano performance degrees from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Manhattan School of Music.
Mary Prescott is a Steinway Artist.
