Building Noble Hearts: Inside a Music Teaching Community

What is community? How do you find it? Join it? Build it? It’s more than just showing up to a bake sale with brownies from a box, then taking off (though I’ve done this many times). Is it bowling clubs…

Music practice has its highs and lows. Sometimes we reach a state of bliss and flow as we find the perfect balance of competence, challenge, and creativity with our instrument. Or, sometimes we can feel like Sisyphus; over and over…

Margaret Watts Romney: Gail Johansen and Daniela Gongora are both violinists and teachers, but they’ve made music in vastly different areas. Gail Johansen lives in Fairbanks, Alaska… Gail Johansen: Right now since it is almost the winter solstice, we have less…

Welcome back to season two of Building Noble Hearts. I’m Margaret Watts Romney. Here, we take a look at the learning environments in which children, parents, and teachers gain new knowledge, and are also encouraged to become fine individuals. Throughout…

Subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes Also on Stitcher and other popular podcast apps. Feed URL: https://suzukiassociation.org/podcasts/building-noble-hearts/ Welcome back to season two of Building Noble Hearts, I’m Margaret Watts Romney. Since the ending of season one last fall, we have loved hearing…

We are dipping back to a series of recordings - interviews made a number of years ago with people who studied with Shinichi Suzuki in Japan in decades past. In their voices, hear their curiosity and admiration as they remember their experiences. Also, you can hear the inspiration, wisdom, and gratitude that they’ve kept with them since they left. We’ve heard similar stories from Winifred Crock, Helen Higa, and Mark Bjork about their time studying in Matsumoto with Shinichi Suzuki. So while we are working on the full episodes for Season Two, we will occasionally release these Matsumoto Memoires: simple storytelling, straight from the people who were there... Lightly edited for clarity, without narration. Our story starts in the 70’s, in Ohio where Sarah Hersh was studying music. She loved playing violin, was curious about teaching, and happened to have a lucky locker assignment. Welcome to this Matsumoto Memoir from Sarah Hersh.

Our story starts in the 60’s, in Minnesota, when Mark Bjork was heading to an intriguing concert. He was going to see a tour group of very young Japanese children playing complex concertos brought to North America by Shinichi Suzuki. Welcome to this Matsumoto Memoir from Mark Bjork.

Have you ever felt so focused on the project in front of you that the rest of the world seemed to disappear? Perhaps time stood still? You felt in complete harmony with things around you? This place is a source…

When is the ideal age to start a music education? Many teachers start students as young as 3 and 4 years old, but Dorothy Jones took to heart Dr. Suzuki’s admonition to focus on the babies. In this episode, we…

Today, we are looking at just one environment created by one teacher, and finding themes that can be applied to good teaching everywhere such as generosity, powerful observation, and warmth. Recently I was introduced to a series of recordings - interviews made a number of years ago with people who studied with Shinichi Suzuki in Japan in decades past. I feel like I’ve had a little trip to Asia in the 1970’s.