Board of Reference

Judith Hancock

Judith Hancock, Senior Lecturer in Organ and Sacred Music, was the Associate Organist of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York, where she assisted in training and conducting the Saint Thomas Choir. Formerly Organist and Director of Music at Saint James’s Church Madison Avenue, New York, and the Church of Saint James the Less in Scarsdale, New York, she directed the music programs in both locations, introducing many new ideas, both musical and liturgical. She has also held positions of Organist and Choirmaster at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati, and at churches in Bronxville, New York, and in Durham, North Carolina.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Dr. Hancock studied organ with the legendary teacher Arthur Poister. From there she went on to Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she earned the Sacred Music Master’s degree, and from which she received the Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Award. Her organ studies in New York with Charlotte Garden and Jack Ossewaarde. She has more recently studied with David Craighead and David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music.
Dr. Hancock has played many recitals throughout the United States, including several appearances at conventions of The American Guild of Organists. When the Choir of St. Thomas Church performed at the AGO National Convention 1982, in Washington DC, and in New York City1996, Ms. Hancock accompanied and performed solo organ works. At the Third International Congress of Organists 1977 in Philadelphia, Dr. Hancock directed the Saint Thomas Choir in concert, performing as organ soloist as well. At the Fourth International Congress 1987, in Cambridge, England, she played solo organ works during the Choir’s performance at King’s College Chapel. She also performed at King’s Lynn and the Aldeburgh Festivals 1987, at Saint John’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey 1987 and 2009, and at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, 2003. Dr. Hancock has appeared with the Saint Thomas Choir on subsequent concert tours of Italy and Austria, performing at the Cathedrals of Venice, Trieste, Vienna, Salzburg, and Copenhagen. She performed on tour in Japan in 1988.

Dr. Hancock established an on-going series of solo organ recitals at St. Thomas Church, performing organ works of various composers. Recent series have included music for trumpet and organ, music for viola and organ, music for cello and organ, “Two Organists at One Keyboard” (performed with Gerre Hancock), “The Great German Tradition,” emphasizing works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Hindemith and Reger, and “The Great French Tradition” featuring works of Tournemire, Vierne and Duruflé and Dupré. She has performed the works of Bach in retrospective, as well as the Antiphons of Dupré, Opus 59 of Reger, Sunday Music by Petr Eben, and the Duruflé transcriptions of improvisations by Tournemire.
Ms. Hancock performed concerted works of Brixi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Rheinberger, Piston, and Poulenc with orchestra. She has recorded on discs produced at Decca/Argo, and Koch International, Priory Records and Gothic Records.
In 2004, Judith Hancock was awarded the degree of Doctor of Sacred Music by St. Dunstan’s College of Sacred Music, Providence, Rhode Island. Also in 2004, the Doctors Hancock were appointed to the faculty of The Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music of The University of Texas at Austin, where until 2012 they built and oversaw a program of studies in and the practice of sacred music. While there Dr. Judith Hancock performed Faculty Recitals on the Bates Recital Hall organ, as well as annual holiday concerts in collaboration with other faculty.

Judith Hancock currently resides in New York City and is available for recitals and master classes, under the exclusive management of Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.