Marianne Carter

Strings Teacher

Marianne believes music education is “instrumental” in improving students’ focus, perseverance, and critical thinking skills. Learning to play music in a group setting creates  an important sense of community and working with students to develop confident and  competent musicianship is challenging, rewarding, and fun. 

A veteran musician, composer, and teacher, Marianne taught pre-school and grade  school music in Australia for two years and upon her return she toured for many years  with the Kansas Arts Commission and the Mid-America Arts Alliance touring programs. She has honed her craft in the Lied.Art.Teach programs, a Lied Center initiative  through which she participated in a series of “Arts-Integrated Residencies and Workshops” seminars created by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  

She enjoys traveling and believes travel inspires a cultural triangulation that fosters understanding of self and world. Through a research grant from the University of Kansas,  where she studied violin, and the "Paretsky Award for Creativity'', Marianne was able to travel to France to study the rich musical traditions of Brittany, the Celtic region of  France. Other travels have taken her to Bali, Newfoundland, Morocco, North Africa,  Nepal, and India, inspiring many original compositions. Her latest musical travels have  taken her to central Mexico, Ireland, and the West African country of Mali.  

She has performed with her Original World Music group “Voyager”, as "Matty Striker" at  the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and as a teaching artist, she presents World  Music, American Traditional Music, and Songwriting programs and workshops. In addition to her various performance endeavors, Marianne teaches guitar, voice, piano, and violin at Prairie Music, her studio in Lawrence, KS.