Mr. Richard Coff

Richard Coff is the founder and director of the Suzuki Music Academy, a leading U.S. regional Suzuki Method center located in South Florida.

Mr. Coff created the Academy program to provide superior formal training for the children of South Florida, who can begin study at any age and from as young as 2 1/2 years old. The Academy program uses authentic Suzuki Method training techniques as developed by Suzuki at his Talent Education School in the Matsumodo, Japan, and is designed to serve the whole child and maximize the benefits that children can receive from formal classical music training using the Suzuki Method.

A longtime member of the SAA, the International Suzuki Association, and the Suzuki Piano Basics Foundation, Mr. Coff is a graduate of Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music and one of the first teachers to teach Suzuki Method Violin in the United States. Prior to the founding of SAA, he completed the first accredited Suzuki Violin Teacher Training course offered at the Conservatory level.

Upon completion of his training with SAA teacher trainer Carol Sykes and after receiving additional teacher training from Shinichi Suzuki, he was appointed to serve as Suzuki Violin Teacher on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division in a program that pioneered Suzuki Violin instruction in the U.S. In 1985, he founded the Suzuki Music Academy. Since that time, he has served as director and primary instructor for the Academy program.

Mr. Coff is is the author of the often cited article, “Suzuki Violin vs Traditional Violin—A Suzuki Violin Teacher’s View—the original article, first published in 1998. He is listed in the “Who’s Who” national directory that recognizes outstanding American arts and academic educators and he has served as a consultant for television and radio productions for ABC News, PBS, and the BBC.

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