About

Lizzie’s diverse portfolio of work stems from her eclectic interests and broad fields of study. A life-long musician, picking up the recorder and piano aged seven, Lizzie went on to play oboe, saxophone and clarinet in school, area and county level. In addition to her preoccupation with music, Lizzie grew increasingly interested in Japan as a teenager and set her mind to learning more about the country at university. As part of her study, she lived in rural Akita for a year where she learned traditional arts such as tea ceremony, ikebana, calligraphy, kendo and yosakoi. She graduated with a 2:1 in Japanese Studies, and went on to work at the Embassy of Japan in the UK for two years. Here, she made great use of her Japanese language skills and displayed a flair for translating and writing formal documents, revelling in both the research and presentation elements of the role.

Lizzie returned to study at Master’s level in 2019 to further develop herself as a musician. She studied Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, where she learned how to understand and perform a wide range of musical styles including Karnatic and Hawaiian music, and developed further her specialism in Japanese-style music. Combined with her years of performance experience, Lizzie set about developing her teaching practice by training as a Primary School Teacher. She worked in primary schools for two years teaching whole-class subjects across the curriculum before returning to teaching extra-curricular subjects through tutoring, clubs and workshops. Now, Lizzie prides herself in teaching music through instruments, encouraging her students to find their own musical identity through experiencing musical cultures from around the world and spreading the joy of creating their own music.

Lizzie describes herself as a “musical native” – someone who has progressed musically through unconventional routes as a performer.