New Director of Music for St Dunstan's

We are delighted that we have appointed Judy Markson as Director of Music for St Dunstan's. Judy brings with her a wealth of musical experience (see below) and we look forward to the contribution that she will make to our worshipping life. Judy's first Sunday will be 5th October.

Judy Markson is a pianist, organist, choir director and music educator. She has concertized frequently as both solo and chamber musician in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Australia and China. She has recently relocated to the UK with her family, having lived for twenty years in New York. During her time in the States, she worked as organist and choir director at St. John-Incarnation Lutheran Church in Lynbrook, as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at the Bronx Community College CUNY, as a piano faculty member at the Herald School of Music, in addition to holding her own private piano studio and managing Long Island's Tree of Light Concert Series as Co-artistic Director.

Having departed from her native China, Judy obtained her Bachelor of Music degree with honours from the University of Melbourne, her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and her Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University in New York. Her final doctoral recital consisted of an all-Russian virtuoso programme, including Balakirev’s Islamey and Mussorgsksy’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Her teachers include Igor Machlak, Nina Svetlanova, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl and Bernard Flavigny (a protégé of Olivier Messiaen and Alfred Cortot) with whom she pursued her special interest in French impressionist music – a topic she has lectured on in both the US and China. She has a held a piano duo with her husband Oliver Markson for over a decade, and has enjoyed wide-ranging collaborations with other instrumentalists notably as a member of the US-based Elsewhere Ensemble. Her 2018 CD release of piano works by the American composer George Antheil for Toccata Classics has received international acclaim.

In her spare time, Judy enjoys writing short stories for both children and adults.