During the 1960s and 70s she voluntarily organised community concerts for her students and those who had been taught by other local music teachers.
They were staged at the Municipal Theatre and would involved more than 100 primary and intermediate students who would perform orchestral arrangements, many composed by her to accommodate all levels over skill.
Through the years she also built up a collection of instruments and would loan them to students unable to afford their own.
While she specialised in violin she was involved in encouraging young people to play piano, flute, guitar — anything to spark the enjoyment of music.
In the 1980s she began looking into the Suzuki method of violin teaching and travelled to Australia to learn its finer points.
She went on to establish the Hawke's Bay branch of the Suzuki Institute and was the region's delegate on the national executive from the 1980s through until 2010.
Bickerstaff had also worked with special needs children — one on one — and if they were unable to play she would encourage them to listen to the music, and join in by clapping.
"To participate in some way in music is so valuable."
She has also developed an initiative to print and provide practice books to Suzuki Institute branch members throughout the country and was made a Life Member in 1991.
While now retired from playing through the onset of arthritis she is still very much involved with youngsters - "Listening and encouraging" and attending chamber concert events.
In an article published 10 years ago one man described Bickerstaff as "a remarkable woman" who taught three of his children and "changed our lives".
