Suzuki: The Man and His Dream to Teach the Children of the World

(Belknap, $30)

Any parent wondering if their child might be a musical prodigy will at some point stumble upon the Suzuki method, said David Mehegan in The Arts Fuse.

The approach—built upon the belief that every child has the capacity to play well—has spread around the world since World War II and remains particularly influential in North America. “Still, probably few people know much, or anything, about Shinichi Suzuki himself, the determined, mild Japanese visionary who began the movement that bears his name.” Eri Hotta’s new biography, the first by a non-follower, proves to be “a revelation on many levels.”

Suzuki’s own love of music grew organically, said Meghan Cox Gurdon in The Wall Street Journal. Born in 1898 into a family that manufactured stringed instruments, he fell in love with the violin at 17 and studied in Germany before returning home to perform with his brothers in a string quartet. It struck him during that time that children should be able to learn music the same way they learn language: by listening, then emulating. He also believed fluency on the violin was within reach of every child regularly exposed to music, though for him, “the violin was less important as an instrument to be mastered than as a tool to be used to promote human flourishing.” Following World War II, he devoted himself to spreading his philosophy.

The success of Suzuki’s method “raises a larger question,” said Adam Gopnik in

The New Yorker. “Is the kind of mastery we associate with historic ‘prodigies’ actually available to every child, with the right encouragement?” The answer, more or less, is yes: “Small children are surprisingly capable of learning difficult things if they’re motivated by their own curiosity and someone else’s enthusiasm.” Steep them in music and a way to produce it, and they will. It doesn’t even matter if today’s adherents of the Suzuki method have forgotten that the founder’s true purpose was to build a better world by nurturing children’s sensitivity to beauty. As long as countless kids around the planet continue to play with the joy he promoted, Suzuki’s vision lives on.