The Suzuki Method of music education was invented in the mid-20th century by Dr. Shin'ichi Suzuki, a Japanese violinist who desired to bring some beauty to the lives of children in his country after the devastation of World War II. Dr. Suzuki believed in the great potential of music to enrich children's lives. He developed a method of music education to enable children to play music to their highest possible level of ability. Dr. Suzuki noticed that all children pick up their native language very quickly, and even dialects which adults consider "difficult" to learn are spoken with ease by people of 5 or 6 years. He reasoned that if a person has the skill to acquire their mother tongue, then they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. He pioneered the idea that any pre-school age child could begin to play the violin if learning steps were small enough and if the instrument was scaled down to fit their body. He modeled his method, which he called "Talent Education", after the process of natural language acquisition. Dr. Suzuki believed that every child, if properly taught, was capable of a high level of musical achievement. He also made it clear that the goal of such musical education was to raise generations of children with "noble hearts" (as opposed to creating famous musical prodigies).

In the late nineteenth century, Japan's borders were opened to trade with the outside world, and in particular to the importation of Western Culture. As a result of this, Suzuki's father, who owned a company which had manufactured the Shamisen, began to manufacture violins instead.

In his youth, Dr. Suzuki chanced to hear a phonograph recording of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, as played on violin by Mischa Elman. Gripped by the beauty of the music, he immediately picked up a violin from his father's factory and began to teach himself to play the instrument "by ear." He eventually began to take lessons with a teacher in Tokyo.

Later, Suzuki travelled to Germany to find a violin teacher to continue his studies. While there, he studied with Karl Klingler, and also met and became friends with Albert Einstein, who encouraged him in learning classical music. He also met, courted, and married his wife, Waltraud.

In 1945, Dr. Suzuki began his "Talent Education" movement in Matsumoto, Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Raising children with "noble hearts" (inspired by great music and diligent study) was one of his primary goals; he believed that people raised and "nurtured by love" in his method would grow up to achieve better things than war.

In 1964, Suzuki took his first group of musicians to play in the United States. The musicianship and confidence of these young students playing demanding solo repertoire astounded the audiences who heard them.

Eventually, the center of the Suzuki movement in education was established as the Talent Education Research Institute (TERI) in Matsumoto. TERI hosts thousands of people each year -- students, parents, teachers, (and teacher trainees). Other organizations have sprung up all over the world to help oversee the movement and train teachers. These include the Asia Suzuki Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the European Suzuki Association, and the Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association. (Currently, the European Suzuki Association also assists with the beginnings of the Suzuki movement in Africa).

The Suzuki method was first developed in Japan. It spread from there to other Pacific Rim countries, and then to Europe. The method has also begun to be taught in a few places in Africa. Although it originally used the study of the violin to achieve its goals, it has also been adapted for other instruments: flute, recorder, piano, guitar, cello, viola, bass, organ, harp and voice. In addition, there are a few "Suzuki Preschools" which have adapted Dr. Suzuki's philosophy to use in the non-musical disciplines of early childhood education.

Today, there are more than 8,000 Suzuki teachers with over 250,000 students across 40 countries.