Marianne Murray Perkins studied directly with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, graduating as a Suzuki Method teacher in 1985. She studied the New Approach with Kato Havas in England and the pedagogy of Paul Rolland at the University of Maryland. She holds a special understanding of the pedagogies of the three most important string pedagogues of the twentieth century and she built a reputation for her comprehensive interpretation of string playing technique.

She attained her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Temple University in 1976, her Master’s degree in Education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1982, and in 1993 she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education at Catholic University, Washington DC. Her doctoral dissertation, “A Comparison of Violin Playing Techniques: Kato Havas, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki” was published by ASTA in 1995. It is used widely in music schools across the country. At the time of her death, she was working on her second book on string pedagogy with her close colleague and friend, Lynne Denig.