Shinichi Suzuki

Shinichi Suzuki was a Japanese violinist, philosopher, composer, and educator and the founder of the international Suzuki method of music education and developed a philosophy for educating people of all ages and abilities. An influential pedagogue in music education of children, he often spoke of the ability of all children to learn things well, especially in the right environment, and of developing the heart and building the character of music students through their music education. Before his time, it was rare for children to be formally taught classical instruments from an early age and even more rare for children to be accepted by a music teacher without an audition or entrance examination. Not only did he endeavor to teach children the violin from early childhood and then infancy, his school in Matsumoto did not screen applicants for their ability upon entrance. Suzuki was also responsible for the early training of some of the earliest Japanese violinists to be successfully appointed to prominent western classical music organizations. During his lifetime, he received several honorary doctorates in music including from the New England Conservatory of Music (1956), and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, was proclaimed a Living National Treasure of Japan, and in 1993, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

17 October 1898

Born on the same birth date (17 October 1898): Eileen Sedgwick • Simon Vestdijk

Born on the same birth day (17 October): Alonso de Orozco Mena • Ernie Els • Mário Wilson • René Dif • Rhys Muldoon • Rico Rodriguez (musician) • Roger Pontare • Ronald González (Chilean footballer) • Sam Concepcion • Segundo de Chomón • Seth Etherton • Sophie Luck • Tommy Kendall • Toni Bou

Born in the same month (October 1898): Adolf Reichwein • Dámaso Alonso • Eileen Sedgwick • Karl Anton • Lotte Lenya • Nachum Gutman • Peng Dehuai • Simon Vestdijk • Tawfiq al-Hakim • Thomas William Holmes • William O. Douglas