Our Director

Liz Shropshire has more than twenty years of experience as a composer and music teacher. She received her BA from Brigham Young University in Music Composition and Theory and an advanced graduate degree from the University of Southern California in Composition for the Music Industry.

Educator

Her experience as an educator includes five years’ teaching emotionally-disturbed elementary and secondary school students in Los Angeles; musical instruction in Los Angeles-area elementary schools; private musical instruction for students ages 4 to 60; and service as educational director for the Long Beach Symphony.

Humanitarian and Founder

In August 1999, Liz took leave of her musical career in Los Angeles to embark on her work in Kosovo. She solicited donations of more than $5000 in instruments and music before traveling to Kosovo as a volunteer with the Balkan Sunflowers Organization. In the city of Gjakove, Liz successfully organized and taught a short-term music program in a local secondary school and a transit shelter camp. She subsequently served in the cities of Peje and Kline as a music therapist with a different organization. In January 2000, Liz founded the Kosovo Children's Music Initiative (KCMI) to establish musical education and performance programs advancing the welfare of Kosovar children and communities. To date, KCMI has reached over 6,000 children, with classes being taught by a well-trained staff of Kosovar Youth Volunteers.

In October 2004, Liz began the Peace Through Music Northern Ireland project, bringing together war-traumatized children from segregated communities for music classes and concerts. In March 2005, she began establishing Child Song Uganda, to work with children rescued from kidnappers who forced them into becoming child soldiers.

Liz’s organizational responsibilities include program curriculum development and staff and volunteer training for the Kosovo, Northern Ireland, and Uganda programs. She also supervises the daily operations of the Shropshire Music Foundation, established in 2000 to provide funding for all of these programs.

© 2005 Shropshire Music Foundation. All Rights Reserved.