Brandon Suzuki Talent Education Program Development
The Suzuki Method was first introduced to Brandon under the direction of Alison Ryles in the late 1970s. Gerhard Ginader and Rebecca Chinn moved to Brandon in the mid-1980s and continued to expand the Suzuki program. Since then many fine teachers have continued to develop this program into what it is today.
During the 1990s, the program was further developed by Robert Richardson Jr., whose energy and vision led the program through many exciting events, including a performance at the 1996 SAA Conference in Chicago. The students who went on this tour are musicians with great character.
In 2001, Michelle Lopez became the director of the STEP (Suzuki Talent Education Program.) Since 2001, the program has grown to include over 85 families in cello, guitar and violin. All STEP teachers have a high commitment to furthering their Suzuki training and regularly attend teacher workshops, institutes and conferences. In 2008, STEP added Orff instruction as a regular part of the curriculum for beginning families.
Young people establish themselves as great musicians through this program, and they gain other valuable attributes, nurtured through the Suzuki Program environment. Lifelong friendships are made in the Suzuki Program, bonds that are special and unique with both students within an age group and from one group to another as older students strive to be the best example for the younger students.
Our program is based on the understanding that family values, respect and kindness for others, sharing and motivation are most important of all. We strive to teach, learn and remember that the ultimate goal of the Suzuki method is to develop great character through the study of music in a nurturing environment.
During the 1990s, the program was further developed by Robert Richardson Jr., whose energy and vision led the program through many exciting events, including a performance at the 1996 SAA Conference in Chicago. The students who went on this tour are musicians with great character.
In 2001, Michelle Lopez became the director of the STEP (Suzuki Talent Education Program.) Since 2001, the program has grown to include over 85 families in cello, guitar and violin. All STEP teachers have a high commitment to furthering their Suzuki training and regularly attend teacher workshops, institutes and conferences. In 2008, STEP added Orff instruction as a regular part of the curriculum for beginning families.
Young people establish themselves as great musicians through this program, and they gain other valuable attributes, nurtured through the Suzuki Program environment. Lifelong friendships are made in the Suzuki Program, bonds that are special and unique with both students within an age group and from one group to another as older students strive to be the best example for the younger students.
Our program is based on the understanding that family values, respect and kindness for others, sharing and motivation are most important of all. We strive to teach, learn and remember that the ultimate goal of the Suzuki method is to develop great character through the study of music in a nurturing environment.
History of Suzuki Philosophy
Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (October 17, 1898 - January 26, 1998) was the son of Japan's first violin manufacturer. Suzuki worked in the violin factory as a child, before he began study of the violin at age seventeen. In 1920 Suzuki embarked on a world tour with his friend Marquis Tokugawa. They travelled extensively throughout Europe before Dr. Suzuki finally settled in Berlin. Suzuki moved in a circle of exceptional people, among them Dr. Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. The musical culture in Berlin during the 1920s was exceptionally rich. Suzuki went to concerts, listened to Kreisler and many other wonderful soloists with the outstanding conductors of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra -Furtwangler and Bruno Walter. He continued his violin studies with the renowned German violinist Karl Klinger. After five years of close association Suzuki married Waltraud Prange and the two of them returned to Japan in 1928.
In Japan, Suzuki and his brothers formed a string quartet that toured extensively. Suzuki taught at the Imperial School of Music and the Kunitachi Conservatory in Tokyo and began exploring the potential of the Mother Tongue Theory. World War II dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese, so that by 1945 the conditions in Tokyo were seriously devastated. Dr. Suzuki moved to Matsumoto, the city gateway to the Japanese Alps, located three hours by train from Tokyo. There he founded the Talent Education Institute and continued the development of the Mother Tongue Approach. Over the next 30 years Suzuki carefully assembled the repertoire of the Suzuki Violin Method. Other violin teachers studied with Dr. Suzuki and began to teach throughout Japan. The tremendous success of the Suzuki Method became well known outside Japan, and interested teachers came to Matsumoto to study and observe Dr. Suzuki first hand. Gradually the Talent Education program expanded to include cello, viola, flute, piano, double bass, recorder, guitar, harp and voice.
In Japan, Suzuki and his brothers formed a string quartet that toured extensively. Suzuki taught at the Imperial School of Music and the Kunitachi Conservatory in Tokyo and began exploring the potential of the Mother Tongue Theory. World War II dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese, so that by 1945 the conditions in Tokyo were seriously devastated. Dr. Suzuki moved to Matsumoto, the city gateway to the Japanese Alps, located three hours by train from Tokyo. There he founded the Talent Education Institute and continued the development of the Mother Tongue Approach. Over the next 30 years Suzuki carefully assembled the repertoire of the Suzuki Violin Method. Other violin teachers studied with Dr. Suzuki and began to teach throughout Japan. The tremendous success of the Suzuki Method became well known outside Japan, and interested teachers came to Matsumoto to study and observe Dr. Suzuki first hand. Gradually the Talent Education program expanded to include cello, viola, flute, piano, double bass, recorder, guitar, harp and voice.
Basic Tenants of Suzuki Talent Education |
Every child is sure to grow in the belief of parents
Because of this belief, parents can, with confidence and infinite affection, help their children learn their mother tongue and develop their ability without worrying or fretting about it. This is not an acquired knowledge, but wisdom inherent in the human being.
Education begins on the very day a child is born
At an earlier date is one of the principles of talent education, and it is certainly observed in the process of mother tongue learning. One knows well that rice will never give a good crop if one fails to breed a good young plant, but it is a pity that there are many who do not pay enough attention to bringing up their own dear children, while they are still young.
Parents, who are teachers of a mother tongue to their children, are all experts in that language
The better teacher brings out better ability from their pupils. If the teachers ability is low, that of his pupils may not be expected to grow up fully. It is an undeniable fact.
Intuition is important in talent education
Learning of a mother tongue is conducted in close connection with intuition, the highest faculty inherent in the human being. If the first words of mother tongue given to a child, not together with his mothers loving smile, but with hard written letters, will the child be able to learn to speak their own language?
Never force children to practice or rehearse
There may be nobody in the world who has been forced to learn his mother tongue, ordered by someone to study hard.
No parents (teachers) ever get angry with or scold the children (pupils) because they are not able to speak their mother tongue fluently
Therefore, children can easily, and without hindrance, develop their own ability of language, having no inferiority complex at all. Is it not an ideal state of education?
Children develop their own ability for themselves
When children learn to speak, they enjoy speaking and practice it every day among themselves. Elder children often join younger ones and make them conscious of the necessity of learning more and help them get more. In this way, children develop their own ability of language for themselves. This is a wonderful way of learning. The spirit of self-betterment and collaboration prevails among them.
Repeat practice and rehearsal everyday, and thus the basis is prepared for a great leap forward in talent
Learning of a mother tongue is made exactly this way. It is why every child can learn and become an expert in his mother tongue. Human faculty develops by exercise, only by exercise, regardless of its inborn differences.
Why is it necessary to practice every day?
Life force has the power of healing any wound inflicted on the human body. Human memory is also being obliterated everyday by the similar process. The necessity of repeated practice is what learning of a mother tongue tells us.
Every child shows a great leap forward before long
An infant, who has learned to utter a word or two when one year old, rapidly develops his ability, and when he is three or four years old, becomes able to command the language freely. This is a wonderful progress in so short a time. Education, which does not bring about such a leap forward, is a failure.
Likes or dislikes are out of the question
If you ask a Japanese whether he likes English or not, you will get an answer easily. But if you ask him whether he like Japanese, he will find himself at a loss for an answer. In this case whether one likes it or not is out of the question. Education, if it is a good one, makes you develop your own faculty to a high degree, while you are unconscious of it.
Disregard the difference in inborn abilities
Of all the cultural faculties a human being is born with, that of learning his mother tongue may be the only one that we can disregard the difference in. Anybody can learn his mother tongue, but it is evident that someone must teach and help him learn it.
Teaching matter needs to be mastered thoroughly, and felt by the children not too difficult
This is the most important point to prevent the pupils from dropping out. At first we teach them an easy introductory part carefully and bring them to play it any way, and then make them practice it again and again. Not until they have learned it thoroughly, been able to perform it beautifully, and begin to feel it is easy, do we move to the next step.
No textbook is necessary for teaching of the mother tongue
A mother always speaks to her baby, with a loving smile on her face. She has been doing so since the very day the child was born. Has anybody ever seen a mother teaching her baby to speak his or her own language with a textbook in hand?
There is no need for any test, entrance exam, terms or school years
Nothing involved with the school system is necessary for children to grow up lively and vigorously. The present school system always drives children by tests and exams. As a result, they develop, not a test for study, but an inferiority complex. A few succeed, but many drop out.
For those who think that the learning of a mother tongue is one, and that of subjects is another...
If you think so, you would also have to think of the scene as imaginary the wonderful scene before you in which 3,000 children can brilliantly play the violin in concert.
This article is based on Dr. Suzuki's writings in the monthly publication of Talent Education, issued in April and May of 1957. It is a direct translation from Japanese. These principles continue to have significant application today.
Because of this belief, parents can, with confidence and infinite affection, help their children learn their mother tongue and develop their ability without worrying or fretting about it. This is not an acquired knowledge, but wisdom inherent in the human being.
Education begins on the very day a child is born
At an earlier date is one of the principles of talent education, and it is certainly observed in the process of mother tongue learning. One knows well that rice will never give a good crop if one fails to breed a good young plant, but it is a pity that there are many who do not pay enough attention to bringing up their own dear children, while they are still young.
Parents, who are teachers of a mother tongue to their children, are all experts in that language
The better teacher brings out better ability from their pupils. If the teachers ability is low, that of his pupils may not be expected to grow up fully. It is an undeniable fact.
Intuition is important in talent education
Learning of a mother tongue is conducted in close connection with intuition, the highest faculty inherent in the human being. If the first words of mother tongue given to a child, not together with his mothers loving smile, but with hard written letters, will the child be able to learn to speak their own language?
Never force children to practice or rehearse
There may be nobody in the world who has been forced to learn his mother tongue, ordered by someone to study hard.
No parents (teachers) ever get angry with or scold the children (pupils) because they are not able to speak their mother tongue fluently
Therefore, children can easily, and without hindrance, develop their own ability of language, having no inferiority complex at all. Is it not an ideal state of education?
Children develop their own ability for themselves
When children learn to speak, they enjoy speaking and practice it every day among themselves. Elder children often join younger ones and make them conscious of the necessity of learning more and help them get more. In this way, children develop their own ability of language for themselves. This is a wonderful way of learning. The spirit of self-betterment and collaboration prevails among them.
Repeat practice and rehearsal everyday, and thus the basis is prepared for a great leap forward in talent
Learning of a mother tongue is made exactly this way. It is why every child can learn and become an expert in his mother tongue. Human faculty develops by exercise, only by exercise, regardless of its inborn differences.
Why is it necessary to practice every day?
Life force has the power of healing any wound inflicted on the human body. Human memory is also being obliterated everyday by the similar process. The necessity of repeated practice is what learning of a mother tongue tells us.
Every child shows a great leap forward before long
An infant, who has learned to utter a word or two when one year old, rapidly develops his ability, and when he is three or four years old, becomes able to command the language freely. This is a wonderful progress in so short a time. Education, which does not bring about such a leap forward, is a failure.
Likes or dislikes are out of the question
If you ask a Japanese whether he likes English or not, you will get an answer easily. But if you ask him whether he like Japanese, he will find himself at a loss for an answer. In this case whether one likes it or not is out of the question. Education, if it is a good one, makes you develop your own faculty to a high degree, while you are unconscious of it.
Disregard the difference in inborn abilities
Of all the cultural faculties a human being is born with, that of learning his mother tongue may be the only one that we can disregard the difference in. Anybody can learn his mother tongue, but it is evident that someone must teach and help him learn it.
Teaching matter needs to be mastered thoroughly, and felt by the children not too difficult
This is the most important point to prevent the pupils from dropping out. At first we teach them an easy introductory part carefully and bring them to play it any way, and then make them practice it again and again. Not until they have learned it thoroughly, been able to perform it beautifully, and begin to feel it is easy, do we move to the next step.
No textbook is necessary for teaching of the mother tongue
A mother always speaks to her baby, with a loving smile on her face. She has been doing so since the very day the child was born. Has anybody ever seen a mother teaching her baby to speak his or her own language with a textbook in hand?
There is no need for any test, entrance exam, terms or school years
Nothing involved with the school system is necessary for children to grow up lively and vigorously. The present school system always drives children by tests and exams. As a result, they develop, not a test for study, but an inferiority complex. A few succeed, but many drop out.
For those who think that the learning of a mother tongue is one, and that of subjects is another...
If you think so, you would also have to think of the scene as imaginary the wonderful scene before you in which 3,000 children can brilliantly play the violin in concert.
This article is based on Dr. Suzuki's writings in the monthly publication of Talent Education, issued in April and May of 1957. It is a direct translation from Japanese. These principles continue to have significant application today.