JAVIER MÁRQUEZ | PIANIST & COMPOSER

Javier Márquez discovered the joy of making music at age 13 in his native Dominican Republic when a middle school friend showed him a keyboard for the first time. That friend taught him a melody by ear, which Javier could remember perfectly a few days later, and so the musical journey began. He spent his high school years teaching himself to play by ear, learning Spanish popular music from the radio, and later to read and write music notation. After graduating from high school and taking a class in music theory and four-part writing, Javier was encouraged to coach a small church chorus in the town of Piedra Blanca, near his hometown of Bonao. He quickly developed a love for choral music. Javier immigrated to the United States in 2002, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Salem State University in 2008 and a Master of Music in Composition from UMass Amherst in 2014. His composition teachers were Philip Swanson and Salvatore Macchia. 

Javier has served as Pianist for the First Baptist Church of Salem, MA since 2008 and for St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Salem, MA since 2018. The Concert Singers of Greater Lynn, a North-Shore-based choral ensemble, has premiered many of his original composition for chorus and orchestra since 2006. He enjoys traveling, learning foreign languages, dancing, food, and of course, making and writing music as much as possible.