Lisa Garner Santa

Lisa Garner Santa, an Artist-Performer and Professor of Flute at Texas Tech University, enjoys a diverse career as a teacher, recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. She is also the Director of the Institute for Faculty Excellence, housed in the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center in the TTU Office of Faculty Success.

Garner Santa's playing has been described as "the kind of tone I prefer - rich, colorful, perfectly in control, and always in tune. Her phrasing is all well-shaped and thoughtful...a truly remarkable artist with dazzling musical ability." (American Record Guide) Her versatile programming ranges from Bach's elegant Baroque music to the Greek folk music-inspired writings of Chyrsanthe Tan.

Her passion for contemporary flute repertoire was sparked by the early flute works of Lowell Liebermann, the topic of her dissertation. Since then, she has championed contemporary flute music by performing and commissioning works from up-and-coming as well as established composers, including Ahmed Al Abaca, Derek Bermel, Valerie Coleman, Peter Fischer, Amanda Harberg, Warner Hutchison, John Mackey, Mike Mower, Joel Puckett, Matthew Santa, Chrysanthe Tan, and Roger Zare.

As a pedagogue, Lisa Garner Santa has shared her expertise throughout the United States and abroad. Prestigious international exchanges include masterclasses at the Royal College of Music in London, England, and Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, as well as Peking University in Beijing, China. She has presented and performed in symposiums in Naolinco (Mexico), San Jose (Costa Rica), and Mendoza (Argentina). Her contributions to academia and flute pedagogy are reflected in her published research, pedagogical articles, and interviews in The Flutist Quarterly, Flute Talk, and The Instrumentalist as well as The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching, Stylus Publishing, and Elon University Open Access (accepted for publication 2024).

Recognized for her achievements, Lisa Garner Santa is a recipient of the Texas Tech Big 12 Fellowship, the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award, the President's Excellence in Teaching Award, the President's Excellence in Diversity and Equity Award, and she was recognized in 2020 as a TTU Integrated Scholar. Actively engaged in leadership roles, she also serves as co-chair of the TTU Full Professors Network, is the immediate past chair of Texas Tech University's prestigious Teaching Academy​, was a founding co-director of the TTU Faculty Mentorship Academy, and served as Interim Director for the TTU School of Music through and beyond the pandemic. 

Currently serving on the National Flute Association Board of Directors, Dr. Garner Santa has been a featured performer at numerous conventions. She has served as an adjudicator and/or coordinator for many NFA events and competitions, including the High School Soloist Competition, the NFA Newly Published Music Competition, the NFA Professional Flute Choir Competition, the General Competitions Coordinator, and as NFA Convention Associate Program Chair for the 2002 convention. She served the NFA as Program Chair for the 2011 convention held in Charlotte, NC, followed by membership on the NFA Executive Committee, Performance Health Care Committee, and Archives and Oral History Committee.

With co-authors Matthew Santa and Thomas Hughes, Lisa Garner Santa developed the Flute/Theory Workout, a method that efficiently introduces full-range scalar and chordal flute technique while introducing music theory fundamentals simultaneously. The Workout, which comes with entertaining audio accompaniment, is available through Carolyn Nussbaum Music Co., and Flute World. You can also find all-level tutorials online through MusicProfessor.com or Udemy. Dr. Garner Santa holds degrees from West Texas State University (B.M. in Flute Performance and Music Business), Florida State University (M.M.), and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University (D.M.A.). Her teachers to whom she is eternally grateful include Carol Wincenc, Charles DeLaney, Sally Turk, Helen Blackburn, and Jamie Shipp.

Additionally, Dr. Garner Santa is a certified Professional Yoga Instructor through the Kripalu Center (E-RYT 500) and teaches “Yoga and the Creative Arts: Philosophy and Practice,” a language, philosophy, and culture core curriculum course at TTU.

Lisa Garner Santa is a Wm. S. Haynes Ambassador/Clinician.