Education
University of Michigan.
University of Michigan.
Mason is Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan. She joined the staff of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1947, became chair of the organ department in 1962, and was named a professor in 1965. Her career as performer, lecturer, adjudicator, and teacher has taken her throughout the western world, at one point performing more than thirty recitals per year.
In 1988, she was described as "among the important influences on the American organ scene in the second half of the 20th century" by the American Guild of Organists New York Chapter when she was named International Performer of the Year.
Over her career, she has also commissioned over 75 original works for the organization In 1985, a C. B. Fisk organ modeled on the eighteenth-century organs of Gottfried Silbermann was commissioned by the University of Michigan School of Music and named the Marilyn Mason Organ in her honor.
She was the first American woman organist to perform in Westminster Abbey, the first woman organist to play in Latin America, and the first American organist to perform in Egypt. Mason"s teaching legacy was recognized in the fall of 2007 when the 47th Conference on Organ Music, which she founded in 1960, was dedicated to her in celebration of her 60th year of teaching.
A biographical video retrospective, "A Life"s Harmony," was created in 2007 to recognize Mason"s exceptional teaching and mentorship.