Liz was born in Montreal towards the end of the war years. She attended school there, including her McGill years studying for a degree in Music Education.
Liz’s mother’s parents lived with them in their late years. Her mother was their caregiver until her grandparents passed away. Her grandfather, a feisty Welshman, had been a choir conductor and organist for over 40 years in Montreal, and he no doubt influenced Liz’s connection to music, which impacted her later life choices. As Liz was an only child, she was very aware of the care provided by her mother to both her aged grandparents.
Liz’s father had an interest in religion, so the family was expected to go to the United Church twice on Sundays. Liz later conducted the children’s choir in that same church.
Liz met her first husband in high school. They married when she was 21 and were together for six years. She taught music in the schools in Montreal and later focused on pre-school education.
At age 27 after the breakup of her first marriage, Liz decided to go to the University of London to study deaf education. However, this did not suit her. She ended up doing many different activities such as pottery making, yoga, meditation and waitressing (it was the early 70’s, after all!)
Eventually she was hired by the London County Council to set up a preschool for immigrant children from Uganda. Idi Amin had ousted all Asians from Uganda overnight, wearing just the clothes on their backs. For a time they were housed in the London Army Barracks. The families were of both Muslim and Hindu heritage…most of them professional people.
Liz became very aware of the cultural and social issues affecting these folk. She found them to be amazingly cooperative with each other despite religious and cultural differences. They would organize weekly feasts and dancing every Friday — and all would pitch in together to create the event. Ultimately, these folk were sent to various other parts of England and the barracks were closed down. This rich experience also impacted Liz’s later life choices.
Because of the work she’d done with this group, Liz was offered a position as a part of the London (England) County Council to help set up preschool programs affiliated with the Parent Participation Preschool Association. She became a peripatetic inspector, travelling by bike with her bag of musical instruments, braving the London traffic from one preschool to another, learning more about the social, emotional and economic challenges for the families in many parts of London.
During this time Liz became interested in a part time self-development school that was becoming popular in London and in North America. This involved training in San Francisco for a year, and then New York, and eventually to Vancouver.
In 1976, after a year working at the preschool at the Downtown East Side Residential Association in Gastown, Liz began looking for a career change. She heard about a new program opening at Capilano College (now called Capilano University) in music therapy. Liz felt this was a perfect blend of her past career experiences. This new program was being developed by a woman named Carolyn Kenny, along with our Nancy McMaster. Hans Krebs was one of the early instructors as well!
Kerry Burke was in the first class of 18 students! Three years later (1979), Liz and Kerry were married by Philip Hewett at the Vancouver Unitarian Church.
Upon graduation, Liz’s first part time music therapy positions were at UBC in psychiatry. She also started the music therapy position for seniors at the Purdy Pavilion.
Additionally in 1979, Liz filled in part time for an instructor teaching one course in the music therapy program. This began a 40-year career of teaching and program coordinating at Capilano University. These were busy years of teaching and also raising their two sons, Mat (who, for a time was a tenor in our NSUC choir) and Jonathan (JJ), with Liz and Kerry trading roles as needed between teaching and parenting.
In time Liz realized she needed more education for her position. She completed a MA part time, and three-year Gestalt Therapy training. In the early 1990’s, Liz and Nancy McMaster trained in an advanced music therapy named Guided Imagery and Music. Liz became a Primary Trainer in this method and offered trainings for over twenty years, here and at other Canadian universities in Edmonton, Waterloo, and Montreal. Liz is now retired but she still occasionally works as a Guided Imagery counsellor.
As the children were growing up, Liz and Kerry’s neighbour (the minister of the Alliance Church) urged them to join their church. One day, their son JJ (who was buddies with the neighbour’s child), came home announcing that “they were likely all going to hell”! That prompted Kerry and Liz to do something in the way of a religious education for their boys. They knew Kathryn Nicholson through their children’s preschool program. (At that time, Kathryn had just taken the music therapy program at Capilano, and she was in a new role of choir director with the North Shore Unitarians). Kathryn suggested that Liz and Kerry might like to try out her church. They knew something about Unitarianism, and so came to meet with Lynn Sabourin. Liz remembers being somewhat tearful after saying to Lynn “You won’t let our boys think we are all going to hell?”
During her years at NSUC, Liz has served twice on the Board, has chaired the Lay Chaplaincy Team, been on the Care and Concerns Team, and sings in the choir. During her most recent time on the Board, she coordinated the Ushers and Greeters and liaised with the Hospitality Team. Liz, along with Kerry, is very grateful to have found this NSUC community.