Judith Mabary received a master's and doctoral degree in musicology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri as well as a master's in vocal performance from the University of Missouri - Columbia. In 1992 she completed her master's thesis on the topic of the dance drama The Strangler: A Rite of Passage - a Creative Synthesis of Modern Dance, Literature and Music: Erick Hawkins, Robert Fitzgerald and Bohuslav Martin ç and in 1999 her dissertation on Redefining Melodrama: The Czech Response to Music and Word, with the help of a grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). Dr. Mabary teaches courses in music history, music appreciation, and world music at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Mabary's research interests include Czech music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing particularly on the life and works of Dvorák, Fibich, and Martinu, melodrama as a genre, and Native American music and culture as it impacts the Western musical tradition. The results of her research have appeared in publications of Cambridge University Press, Pendragon Press, the Dvorák Society, the International Martinu Society, as well as in the proceedings of various professional conferences where she has presented papers. She has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and presented lectures in numerous venues including the Guildhall School for Music and Drama (London), Stanford University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Bard Music Festival. Dr. Mabary has also served in several professional societies, including as president and secretary of the Czech and Slovak Music Society, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Bohuslav Martinu Society.