In her closing remarks at the SAA Leadership Retreat in May, my esteemed predecessor as SAA Board Chair, Joanne Melvin, exhorted the Association’s leaders and members to continue to tell their stories. Since then, I have been in the enviable position of hearing many of those “stories”—stories about the history of the Suzuki movement, stories about its founders and early leaders in the Americas, stories from teachers about their challenges, accomplishments, and aspirations, stories from parents about their children’s adjustments to the musical world beyond Suzuki instruction. As a participant in the SAA Board’s discussions about the future of the Association, it is extremely helpful to hear these stories.
The first and most immediately useful set of stories were the comments and opinions gathered from feedback sessions at the Leadership Retreat and at Suzuki Institutes. As an integral part of the SAA Annual Meeting at the Leadership Retreat, each Board member led a discussion group that was asked to answer these two global questions: 1) As leaders in the Suzuki community, how can we bring home to the broader membership the importance of the SAA and its relevance to their work? 2) What do you see as the greatest need or challenge facing teachers, parents or programs in your area over the next ten years? This second question was also posed to participants at SAA Focus Meetings at all the summer Institutes. Board members teaching at or attending those Institutes were present at the Focus Meetings to record the responses.
At the end of the summer, Board members summarized and shared with each other all of the feedback from these various discussions. During the fall Board meeting, the Board determined that there were issues important to a preponderance of responders that should be considered in shaping the Association’s Ends. The concern most commonly expressed was that the Suzuki community train a sufficient quantity of excellent Suzuki teachers to meet the demand that has arisen for Suzuki education. In addition, we should create tangible means for insuring and acknowledging the quality of that education. To address those concerns, the Board is recrafting significant parts of its global Ends policies. We hope those newly crafted policies will clarify some of the goals the SAA staff will seek to realize in the coming years.
Another common concern gleaned from the feedback given the Board was that Suzuki education remain economic sustainable, that is, sustainable for those who impart that education (teachers) and those who receive it (families). The Board hopes to discuss that issue at subsequent meetings.
One of the story-telling sessions I found most interesting took place at the Chicago Suzuki Institute. Because I have a Suzuki son who has gone on to professional musical training, I was asked to participate in a parents’ discussion about Suzuki children making the transition into the broader musical community. One of the stories I heard during that discussion involved a youth orchestra conductor’s assumption that because a young musician seeking to join his orchestra was Suzuki-trained, that young musician would not be able to sight-read and would play out of tune. I was surprised to hear that those old stereotypes still exist. In retrospect, the assertion I made in my last Chair’s Column (“In my opinion, the Suzuki Method, once perceived as a fringe pedagogy, now occupies a respected position at the center of the musical and educational mainstream.”) may not be universally true. This condition points up the need to continually tell the accurate story of the Suzuki method to those outside the Suzuki community. That responsibility belongs to the Association as an entity and to every individual in the Suzuki family. Of course, the most powerful way to communicate that message is by the example of our excellent teaching and excellent students.
Since becoming Chair, one of the most inspiring locations for hearing Suzuki stories has been Stevens Point, Wisconsin, home of the American Suzuki Talent Education Center. I spent two weeks there as a conductor/composer on the Institute faculty. During those two weeks, I attended lectures by leaders in the Suzuki community and had several conversations with teachers and parents who visited me in my composition studio. The greatest treat of the Institute was watching some video footage of Dr. Suzuki himself teaching during his visit to Stevens Point in 1976. How inspiring was that? Although his command of English was not perfect, and the subject (bow position) was somewhat opaque to me as a non-string player, I was moved by the humor, kindness, and passion for connection demonstrated by Dr. Suzuki. Having my old and sometimes cynical heart warmed by this man’s spirit brought home to me his initial motivation for devising this Method and our primary motivation for perpetuating it.
At the end of September, I returned to Stevens Point for SAA’s first Board meeting of the year. That meeting coincided with the dedication of the new Aber Suzuki Center. During the ceremonies and gatherings surrounding this event, I was again the happy auditor of wonderful stories about the Suzuki movement. Audience members attending the final dedication concert also received Ms. Aber’s history of the American Suzuki Institute, a fun read that also recounts the development of the model used for most Suzuki Institutes. I was reminded again of how important it is to preserve the history and legacy of the Suzuki movement, which is one of our Ends Policies. At the May Conference and through other means, SAA will be taking bold steps to collect, preserve, and display that history. In the meantime, it is everyone’s responsibility to share stories and preserve the legacy. Projects such as Ms. Aber’s book and Pat D’Ercole’s digital archiving of the Stevens Point video footage of Dr. Suzuki are great examples of the contributions individuals can make. Simply recounting our own Suzuki stories to our students and parents and each other helps preserve that legacy.
I have been an academic long enough to have witnessed what happens to organizations when they ignore their history. So much time can be wasted by trying to reinvent basic structures and policies that were well-crafted by previous generations. It seems even more counterproductive to forget or discard the mission that was the initial underpinning for an activity or program. Not that institutions and movements should not evolve beyond their beginnings. As Dr. Suzuki said, the Suzuki method changes every day. Nonetheless, accurately preserving and sharing our stories for ourselves and for those beyond the Suzuki community seems to me an essential ingredient in maintaining the health of Suzuki education.
