Lisa Barca-Hall

Lisa graduated from Yale University in 1982 with a psychology degree and has been a Suzuki teacher since 1974. She has seven grown kids and four grandkids. She began her Suzuki training, along with four younger siblings, in the mid-sixties in Harwich, Massachusetts with Suzuki pioneers Susan Grilli, Sylvia Edmonds and Carol Sykes. She established her first Suzuki School in 1978 while still an undergraduate at Yale, the Suzuki Music School of New Haven, which grew to 430 students in just four years. She established her second school, the Bethwood Suzuki School, in Woodbridge, CT in 1988 which under her tenure grew to 650 violin, piano and cello students who regularly performed throughout Connecticut and beyond. Many of her former students have gone on to careers in performance and teaching. Lisa also developed a unique pre-twinkle music and movement program called Kinderhythms for ages 18 months to four years old.

In 1995, Lisa’s husband’s company moved to California and her family relocated to the Santa Cruz Mountains where she taught privately and also established Suzuki programs in two elementary schools. Lisa officially retired in 2010 but after moving to the Carmel/Monterey area in 2018, she became involved in supporting local public school programs and resumed accepting a limited number of private students. She has a waitlist until 2024 when she will accept new students again.