Marion Caldwell was born in South Africa and obtained her degree in Piano Performance from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. She worked as a university tutor, accompanist, and repetiteur for Opera Africa before meeting her English husband and moving to England in 1997.

She worked for the Hertfordshire Music Service before relocating to Cambridge in 2003, and since then has established herself as a well-respected performer, accompanist and teacher. She returned to formal study and graduated with distinction with a Masters in Performance, specialising in accompaniment, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2014.

The experience of growing up in an extremely unequal society, and later navigating the world of the advanced study of piano performance as a mature woman student, has informed her solo and collaborative practice, leading to a special interest in the work of women and historically marginalised composers.