Jay Broeker

Hello Jay! Jay is St. Mark’s musical  director extraordinaire! He selects the music for worship services each week, and directs the Chancel Choir and the Handbell Choir. He works with the pastor to coordinate the hymns that support the sermons each week.

Jay has been the Music Director at St. Mark’s since December, 2022. Jay’s partner and family have attended St. Mark’s for many years and they introduced him to the church. Jay grew up in a Methodist church. He notes, “it feels a bit like a homecoming for me”. He enjoys the different people and the personalities that he interacts with each week.

Outside of St. Mark’s, Jay teaches lessons and classes at the Preucil School of Music and is the co-director and accompanist for the Iowa City Youth Choir. In the summer, he teaches music education courses at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, and at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

When Jay isn’t teaching, he relaxes by cooking and feeding family and friends. He is a Minnesota Twins baseball fan and listens to the games while grilling, gardening or working in the yard. He plays the New York Times games Wordle and Connections every day.

When asked ‘what brings you joy?’ Jay responded by saying watching children making music together, seeing worshipers at St. Mark’s enjoying the music during the service, delicious food, scampering squirrels, curious goats, poetry, perennials sprouting again in the spring, peaceful times, playing euchre with his Indiana relatives and reading the comics at bedtime.

Jay appreciates the opportunity he has to make music with all of his new friends – and family, at St. Mark’s! Thank you, Jay, for bringing your joy of music to St. Mark’s!