Marilyn Biery
Bridge Director of Music Ministry
Office: 248-973-8004
Marilyn Perkins Biery is an organist, conductor, composer, hymn writer, and keyboard acquisitions editor for Augsburg Fortress of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has served as music director for several downtown Detroit churches, most recently at Fort Street Presbyterian Church.
Before moving to Michigan with her husband, James Biery, in 2010, Marilyn was Associate Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Bierys also lived in Connecticut, where Marilyn was Director of Music Ministries at First Church of Christ (Center Church) in downtown Hartford.
Marilyn holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from Northwestern University—she entered the doctoral program in choral conducting at the University of Connecticut before they moved to Minnesota, and she finished her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Minnesota (the University of Minnesota didn’t offer a doctorate in conducting at the time).
Her hymn texts, choral and organ compositions are published by GIA, MorningStar, Augsburg Fortress, and Concordia. Her organ performances have been broadcast numerous times over the syndicated organ program from Minnesota, Pipedreams.
She and Jim live in Grosse Pointe Farms—Jim is Minister of Music and Organist at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Their daughter, Laura, lives in Royal Oak and is a litigation attorney at Honigman in Detroit. The Bierys have a Jack Russell/Dachshund mix dog that they got as a rescue last year. Marilyn loves to cook and bake bread.