Our teaching methods are founded upon the educational philosophy of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. Essentially, Suzuki demonstrated that music education can successfully be modeled on the process of acquiring one's "mother tongue", i.e. learning by listening before the introduction of written materials. Suzuki’s ideas were first put into practice with violin instruction, and his methods have since spread to the pedagogy of cello, viola, double bass, flute, guitar, recorder, harp, and piano. Today, hundreds of thousands of children around the world benefit from Dr. Suzuki’s insights.

Successful Suzuki instruction depends upon two basic factors:

• The teachers must be qualified. As well as being experienced and well-rounded musicians and educators, all of our association’s teachers are members of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and have completed the required training;
• The parents must understand the basics of the philosophy and must be ready to play a substantial role in the musical education of their child/children. To help new parents get started, we hold a New Parent Orientation Session in September which provides an overview of the Suzuki philosophy; explains the roles of teachers, parents, and students in the learning process; and addresses important information about listening, motivation, and practice habits. For more information about when this year’s parent session will be held, please see the calendar on the Agenda page.

For more information about Suzuki instruction, please visit the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.