Human Interest

Emily’s History

When Emily was born, universal newborn hearing screens were not performed at birth in the hospital as they are today. Her parents assumed that she was just a good sleeper, able to tune out the loud sounds of her toddler brother. But at four months, they noticed that Emily wasn’t cooing, babbling or responding like other babies. They had her hearing checked, and the diagnosis was profound deafness. Emily’s cochlea was non-functional, preventing any sound from being transmitted from her ears to her brain.

Emily’s parents researched possible solutions and a cochlear implant appeared to be the best alternative.…

Read more of The Remarkable Story of Emily, Her Cochlear Implant, and how the Suzuki Method Made a Difference in Her Life »

Growing up in the rural Kithoka community in central Kenya, Bishop Lawi Imathiu didn’t have the opportunity to go to high school. There were no secondary day schools in this rural area outside the town of Meru, just prohibitively costly boarding schools. He sought his own education and went on to attain several degrees, but back in Kithoka, educational opportunities were still thin on the ground.…

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The title of Kay Collier Sloan’s fantastic book They’re Rarely Too Young and Never Too Old to Twinkle was put to the test in January 2009. I was working as an administrative assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Education and Human Science, which houses…

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Year 2008 has been designated by the Japanese Suzuki teaching community as the Shinichi Suzuki 10th Anniversary Memorial Year. Concerts and ceremonies are being held throughout the year at various locations in Japan to commemorate Dr. Suzuki’s birth, death and legacy. I was deeply honored to be one of three teachers from America invited to participate in the Shinichi Suzuki Memorial Concert in Tokyo on March 28th. The others were Nicholas Kendall, violinist from Philadelphia and Takeaki Miyamae, flutist from Pittsburgh. We were invited to Japan for a week to teach master classes and group lessons, to rehearse and direct…

Read more of Rodney’s Fabulous Adventure: Honoring Dr. Suzuki in Japan »

Frecuentemente en nuestras vidas plantamos una semilla sin saber si o cómo va crecer, esperando ver en ella prosperidad y belleza. Hacemos lo que sabemos para nutrirla atentamente y con paciencia, pero también hay cosas que debemos dejar libradas a las circunstancias y esperar a ver el fruto de nuestro esfuerzo. Esta es la historia de una semilla que planté, y cómo creció.

Mi historia comienza en Lima, Perú, en Enero del 2005, donde asistí al XX Festival Internacional Suzuki. Era la única “gringa” en el curso del Libro 10 de Violín además de mi profesora, Doris Preucil. Tanto ella como…

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Frequently in our lives, we plant a seed not knowing if or how it will grow, hoping for bounty and beauty. We do what we know to nurture its growth, but must leave much to chance and contingency, and wait to see what fruit our efforts might bear us. This is the story of a seed I planted, and how it grew.

My story begins in Lima, Peru, in January, 2005, when I attended the XX Festival Suzuki as a teacher trainee. I was the only “gringa” in my violin Book 10 class with Teacher Trainer, Doris Preucil. In addition to…

Read more of Project Buenos Aires »

An Angel in the Outfield