Barbara Markay

Throughout her professional journey, Barbara Markay explored a wide array of musical genres. She entered the world in Rockville Center on New York’s Long Island, where piano instruction commenced at the age of four. A scholarship to Juilliard’s preparatory division arrived when she turned ten, followed a year afterward by violin studies at the Manhattan School of Music. Her Juilliard training culminated in a bachelor’s degree in composition.

Leaving the classical sphere for pop, she assembled the five-part female vocal ensemble the Girl Scouts and subsequently launched the musical theater troupe Little Lulu & the Humpers, whose revue reached stages in both Miami Beach and New York City. With her own band she embarked on a European tour, secured a contract with WEA International Records, and achieved a Top 20 European single with “It’s Alright” plus a number-two placement on the French dance chart with “I Don’t Want to Be a Zombie.”

Back in the United States she undertook an assortment of studio and stage roles, among them synthesizer programming for Carly Simon’s Coming Around Again album, additional synthesizer work alongside Leon Pendarvis for the 1987 Michael Jackson “Bad” video, arranging duties for Saturday Night Live, and backup vocal support for Bruce Willis amid the actor’s brief recording venture. In 1994 she issued her debut album, the pop-oriented Change to Come, on her own My Thing Music imprint. Her follow-up, Heart Like a Song (2000), leaned toward world music and Latin jazz textures, while the third release, Shambhala Dance (2005), adopted a new age orientation.