The Suzuki Method was founded by Japanese national, Dr Shinichi Suzuki, the son of Japan's first and largest violin manufacturer.

Inspired by a recording by Mischa Elman of Ave Maria, Suzuki began to teach himself to play the violin and spent the next few years dedicating himself to the study of the instrument.

At the age of 22, he travelled to Berlin to study with the renowned violinist, Karl Klinger and it was here he became friends with reknowned music historian Alfred Einstein and also met and married Waltraud Prange, a concert soprano.

The couple returned to Japan in 1928 where he began teaching and performing with the Suzuki Quartet.

While in Germany he had observed how easily the young children learned to speak German, a language he was struggling to master.

He also realised that all Japanese children easily learn to speak Japanese, a highly complex language. He surmised that all children are able to learn their mother tongue effortlessly through listening, imitation and repetition and concluded that children could also learn music in this way, if taught with love and dedication.

Thus Dr. Suzuki began teaching music using the concept 'character first, ability second'.

His goal was to embrace the whole child, nurturing a love of music and the development of a fine character rather than just the mastering of a musical instrument.

Dr. Suzuki called his idea 'Talent Education' and soon established a school in Matsumoto and took a great deal of time and care developing the repertoire, which presents technical and musical concepts in a logical sequence.

He called his teaching method the Mother-Tongue Approach, inspired by the fact that children so effortlessly learn to speak their native tongue. Prompted and encouraged by the parents' love and the family environment, the child responds and develops this most difficult of skills, that of intelligible speech.

In the Suzuki approach each of these principles is used in the learning of an instrument (piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, guitar, voice, harp and recorder).

Dr. Suzuki closely follows the parallel with language learning and recommends that music should become an important part of the baby's environment from birth (or even before).

When the infant's environment includes fine music as well as the sounds of the mother-tongue, it is understandable that the child will develop the ability to speak and to play a musical instrument (with technical guidance) before being required to read in either language. Formal lessons frequently begin as early as three years of age.

In 1958, a film of young Suzuki children performing was shown to a group of string teachers in Ohio. The film provoked a great deal of excitement amongst the musical establishment and prompted many American teachers to learn about the method.

Dr. Suzuki took a group of Japanese students to the USA to perform at a music educators conference in 1964 which continued to fuel the desire for knowledge about this amazing man and his work.

In Bermuda the method of teaching was introduced in 1979 by Marlene Campbell, who formed the Suzuki Music School.

Today there are over 8,000 Suzuki teachers worldwide and more than 250,000 children learning by the Suzuki Method and even though Dr. Suzuki died in 1998, his legacy will continue to profoundly influence the lives of children and their families.