Musical Marshallese

December, 2019: Marshallese-born twins Julia and Emma Churchill performed a spectacular concert at the Marshall Islands Resort Friday. The young ladies, who were adopted by Mark and Marylou Churchill when they were eight months old, have been studying music from the age of four, with Julia playing violin and Emma the cello.

Mark proudly introduced his daughters, adding a little bit of their history. The concert consisted of a range of styles but highlighted a number of Christmas pieces and a spirited version of Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. Significantly, Julia’s violin was made before the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1770.

Organizers of the concert, led by music buff Scott Stege, wrote in a release: “Originally named Day and Night … the twin’s Johnny family birth parents are from Airok, Ailinglaplap, though the twins were born on Majuro and have lived in the States ever since. They studied music seriously from age four and are excited by this, their first trip back to the Marshall Islands.”

Their father is educator, conductor, and cellist Mark Churchill, who is Dean Emeritus of New England Conservatory’s Department of Preparatory, which he led for 31 years. He was married to violinist and educator, the late Marylou Speaker Churchill, who worked at the New England Conservatory and was Principal Second Violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
At the concert, father Mark noted that from the beginning the girls loved music. Even when they were babies, if there was music playing “you didn’t hear a peep from either of them.”