P E O P L E
Music in the Time of War
Ex-Mar Vista woman volunteers with Ukrainian children By Summer Aguirre or some, volunteering abroad is a once-in-alifetime experience. But for composer and music teacher Liz Shropshire, this is her life’s calling. Shropshire, 60, formerly of Mar Vista, has dedicated her life to bringing the power and joy of music to children and youth in conflict zones around the world. Over the past 23 years, she and her nonprofit organization, the Shropshire Music Foundation, have transformed the lives of over 20,000 children through 95,000 classes and counting. In response to the war in Ukraine, this summer she is initiating a full-scale music program for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. “I'm going crazy, I'm nervous, I'm excited. I haven’t traveled for two years because of COVID,” Shropshire said before she left. “I'm anxious to get out in the field and get back to what I've been doing, mostly.” Through the Shropshire Music Foundation, of which Shropshire is the executive director, she has brought music education to refugee camps and war zones in Kosovo, Uganda, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh and Greece. Most recently, she taught hundreds of hours of music classes to Afghan families in the Phoenix area over the past year. The programs cultivate hope and help refugees develop resilience and problem-solving skills, as well as give them a positive emotional outlet. In Ukraine, the foundation is working with a Poland-based volunteer group who has been running refugee camps in hotels and expo centers. Shropshire and one of the foundation’s board members, Tre Hulme, are living in a hotel-turned-shelter with refugees while initiating a music program for the children. “One of the things that is unique about us is that we don't take in a big team,” said Shropshire, who now lives in Litchfield Park, Arizona. “Our goal always is to set up a program run by local volunteers.” The foundation partners with local organizations in the countries in which it operates. Shropshire first helps establish
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LIZ SHROPSHIRE
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San Tan’s MaryEllen Simmons, who creates the foundation’s teacher bags for free. the music programs, and once they’re self-sustainable, the foundation continues to support them through advanced training visits and staying connected online. The foundation hasn’t had the funding to hire employees and Shropshire doesn’t want to leave locals without a program once volunteers leave. To fix this, she involves local teenagers, who also help with language barriers. “We ended up with 40 teenag-
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ers in Kosovo running our program,” she said. “Not only teaching the classes to the children, but writing lessons and writing reports afterward, meeting for training five times a week, talking about what was going on in their classes and helping each other out.” They teach the children simple instruments, including ukulele, harmonica, pennywhistle and drums. On her trip to Poland, Shropshire brought “mobile teacher
kits,” which are shoulder bags that hold supplies needed to teach music anywhere. Each bag carries a double-sided whiteboard, notebooks, pencil cases, writing utensils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, tuners and Shropshire’s music books. The bags are made with water-resistant material that the foundation purchases but are all created for free by Arizonan MaryEllen Simmons. She even designed special bags in the colors of the Ukrainian flag for
the occasion. Depending on the state of the war, Shropshire will make a couple month-long trips to Poland until the middle of September before a possible return in January. Shropshire’s vocation and the birth of her foundation are rooted in her upbringing and passion for music. Hailing from Lemoore, she has lived in many places, due to her father’s 30-year career as a naval aviator. “My dad was flying missions over Vietnam my whole childhood, which is probably why I'm so drawn to work with children that are impacted by war,” she said. Shropshire earned her undergraduate degree in music composition and theory from Brigham Young University, prior to attending the University of Southern California for her advanced studies graduate degree in composition for the music industry. She moved on to a career composing music for film until 1999, when she was 37 years old and living in Mar Vista. Initially, she wanted to work in the music industry, but soon discovered it wasn’t for her. “For me, personally, it just wasn't the best fit,” Shropshire said. “I loved the work, but I just didn't feel like I was really having the impact that I wanted to with my life.” While heavily teaching on the side, she overheard news about the Kosovo War and was immediately intrigued by the idea of volunteering as an aid worker. Instead of backpacking in Switzerland that summer like she had planned, Shropshire used her plane ticket to join a volunteer group in Kosovo for a few weeks. She brought eight duffel bags with about $5,000 worth of instruments that she collected from fundraising and connecting with instrument manufacturers. The three-week trip to Kosovo morphed into a six-week stay, and it only took a couple days there for her to realize that helping war-affected children through music was her life’s mission. Shropshire developed the
