Liza Barley holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Music in Music Leadership/Collaborative Composition from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.
In addition to growing up as a Suzuki student and being trained and certified in the method, Liza has been teaching Suzuki violin/viola for nearly 20 years all over the world, including the ten years she spent building and directing a Suzuki program and arts education and performance center in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa.
She is well-known in the Suzuki world and has taught and participated in workshops and institutes all over the U.S., Canada, Central America, Europe, Africa, and Japan. While trained in Suzuki, Liza is passionate about adapting methodologies and teaching practices to various contexts and is always curious to try new things and see how pedagogy can adapt and evolve with a particular context, group, family, or individual.
In her artistic life, she spends a lot of time leading workshops in all kinds of contexts where participants use music to get in touch with their own creative voice and make new work together. She brings these skills to her teaching and raises students who become well-rounded musicians, comfortable in a variety of styles and modalities of playing, creating, and performing on their instruments.