Margaret Perry

Margaret Perry is a group piano and piano pedagogy coordinator and teacher for the Conservatory of Music. She is also a rehearsal pianist for the Pacific Opera Theatre.

Perry attended Brigham Young University and received her Bachelor of Music degree, cum laude, in piano performance and pedagogy and a Master of Music in piano performance. She completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at the University of Arizona. She was a student of Margaret Garner, Paul Pollei and Rex Woods.

As a soloist and collaborative pianist, Perry has played throughout the United States and Italy. Before joining Pacific, she was an ensemble artist pianist for the Utah Symphony and Opera. From 2002 to 2004, she performed with the ensemble artists throughout the state of Utah and in Nevada and Wyoming to bring opera into the schools and communities. She was also one of the accompanists for the Studio Artists touring productions of “Don Pasquale” and “La Cenerentola” in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. In addition, she had opportunities to be an accompanist for the Utah Opera Chorus and the Utah Symphony Chorus and to work with conductors such as Anton Coppola, Kirk Muspratt, Deuane Kuenzi, and Susanne Sheston.

In 2002, Perry was the first-place winner of the Green Valley Concert Association Piano Competition and also received the Audience Award. As a Medici Scholars Award Recipient in 1999 and 2000, she participated in the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Vietri sul Mare, Italy and the Corsi Internazionali di Musica in Urbino, Italy. She also did research for her dissertation on the piano music of Italian composers Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero. She has performed in master classes for distinguished pianists that include Renato Premezzi, Louis Nagel, Thomas Mastroianni, and Dalton Baldwin.

Today Perry is involved in numerous collaborative projects with colleagues and within the community. She has been a pianist for the Stockton Symphony, Stockton Opera Association, Stockton Civic Theatre, and Stockton Chorale. During the 2007 Brubeck Festival at University of the Pacific, she performed with Kevin Deas (bass), recipient of the 2006 Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement. She is an active member of the Music Teachers’ Association of California. She currently serves as President of the MTAC State Board of Directors. She served as First Vice President from 2023-2025 and Director 1 from 2021-2023. At the local level, Perry served as the San Joaquin County Branch President 2017-2021. She served as the Lodi Branch Recording Secretary 2013-2017. She is also a member of MTNA, CAPMT, Pi Kappa Lambda, Mu Phi Epsilon, and Phi Kappa Phi.