** Note ** This post was written at the beginning of 2020, well before it was announced that Hilary Hahn is recording the new Suzuki recordings. I considered deleting this post as it might not be relevant, but then realized as I read through it again, that we have overcome certain hurdles but certainly not all of them. Hillary Hahn is a consummate musician, has pioneered innovative work in the classical music world, and appears to be a genuinely warm-hearted human being. Nevertheless, she still doesn’t represent all of us. No grammy-winning musician could. Consider reading to the bottom of this post to see what I suggest instead.

Historically there has only been one ‘correct’ reference recording to listen to. Now, we have a few more options.

Following the sexual allegations and confirmed sexual misconduct of William Preucil, the artist who most recently recorded all Book 1-8 of the Suzuki Violin School, I stopped listening to any Alfred recordings of the Suzuki repertoire.

I had heard rumors of Preucil’s misconduct for years, and could barely bring myself to listen to the recordings before the scandal broke. But once it was clear that multiple investigations into his character determined he was guilty, I stopped entirely. It sickened me to know that a sexual predator’s music was lulling Suzuki students to sleep at night.

Alfred music was silent about the issue for months. After the direct prompting of a concerned Suzuki teacher and SAA board member, Alfred responded with the following…

“We take the allegations of sexual misconduct that have been made against violinist William Preucil, Jr. extremely seriously. We understand how important our Suzuki Violin School recordings are to you as an educator. We are in the process of working with the ISA on commissioning and releasing new recordings with a new artist in 2019. As you can imagine, this process will take time and we want to ensure that we provide you with the highest quality recordings as you have come to expect from us….During this transition period, if you wish to purchase recordings by artists other than Mr. Preucil you can access the Alfred.com website. We appreciate you reaching out during this difficult time and sharing your concerns with us.”

2019 has passed and we have no new recordings. If you visit the alternative recordings web page on Alfred.com (here), you’ll also find that EVERY SINGLE recording made of the Suzuki Books is performed by a cis-gendered male.

So what do I do as a teacher?

First, I explain the situation to the parents of our families. They need to know that the classical music world has allowed— and used!— sexual harassment to shape itself for centuries. They also need to know that many Suzuki teachers are addressing the issue face on, and holding predators accountable.

I point my students to the Suzuki Evergreens recordings played by Suzuki raised violinist Takako Nishizaki for several reasons.

First, it is a performance by a non cis- male. That sort of representation I feel is desperately needed at this time.

Second, it includes, within each album, recordings of the pieces as they were traditionally played along with the pieces performed in the formal Suzuki style.

Third, it is available on Spotify— the platform I, and many of my students, happen to use.

I also like to point families to this resource guide for recordings of Suzuki pieces by independent professional artists.

I dream of a grassroots movement of teachers at the intersection of many identities creating a giant reference library of recordings for all Suzuki students. It would include multiple recordings (audio and video) of each piece which would span nationality, ethnicity, gender expression, age and class, and would be posted for free consumption on a platform like YouTube and Spotify.

Now, because the copyright of the Suzuki sequence is held so firmly by Alfred I doubt this is possible for teachers to organize before the next expensive recording and publishing of the books is made. But I feel so inspired to TRY.

I want you to consider how tragic it is that a multi-national, humanist movement such as Suzuki’s has traveled so far, and yet is represented, exclusively, by one white, cisgendered, sexual predator.

We must do better. And if you are looking to open up the Suzuki Method to the people who have been historically barred from participating in classical music, diverse representation and fair distribution of the reference recordings is a worthwhile place to start.

If you are interested in making a recording with me please send a message via the contact form here.