Louise Behrend, recognized as a pioneer in the music education field, has combined her artistic vision with years of performance and music education experience to create and sustain The School for Strings, one of the first and finest music schools in the nation to dedicate itself to the Suzuki-based method of instrumental instruction.
A native of Washington D.C., Miss Behrend received her early violin training with Herman Rakemain, student of Joachim. She later attended the Juilliard Graduate School under Louise Persinger, the teacher of both Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci. She received additional advanced training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria under Theodore Muller.
Following her debut at Town Hall in 1950, Louise Behrend performed extensively across the U.S. as a soloist and chamber musician. Miss Behrend’s international performance career included two seasons as soloist with the Gotham Baroque Ensemble, tours as a member of various chamber ensembles, and an extensive solo tour of the Far East.
Having served on the faculties of numerous prestigious institutions and music conservatoires, Louise Behrend has trained countless musicians in primary and advance violin instruction. She has been a faculty member at the Mary Washington College, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth College, University of Maine, The Henry Street Music Settlement, New York University, the Manhattan School of Music, and for the past sixty years, the Julliard School, She has frequently been invited to teach seminars at Suzuki institutes throughout this country. In 1990, Miss Behrend accepted a special invitation to give an intensive summer teacher training course at the Menendez Pelayo International University in Santander, Spain.
Ms. Behrend’s contributions to music education have received both national and international recognition. In May of 1989 she was honored by the InterSchool Orchestras of New York at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, as the recipient of their second Annual Achievement Award. Miss Behrend was honored, “in recognition of your unique commitment to young people, to education, and to music”. In 1992, she became the first teacher to have students win the Grand Prize in both the Pre-College and Pre-Professional Divisions of the national ASTA competition, and in 1994, she received the ASTA Distinguished Service Award. In 1996 Miss Behrend was awarded Distinguished Service Award by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and in 2002 the Suzuki Association paid special recognition to her contribution to the field of music education with a “Creating Learning Community Award”. In March of 2003, Miss Behrend was presented the Betty Allen Award by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center “in recognition of her life-long dedication and distinguished contribution to music education in the area of chamber music”.
Louise Behrend was first introduced to Shinichi Suzuki after his 1964 demonstration performance at The Julliard School. His young violin students astounded the audience with their remarkable proficiency. Shortly thereafter, while on a concert tour of the Far East, Miss Behrend enjoyed an extended visit with Dr. Suzuki in Matsumoto, observing his teaching and discussing his pedagogical ideas every afternoon. Upon returning to the United States, she began experimenting in her own studio and at The Henry Street Settlement Music School. In 1970, she established one of the first Suzuki programs on the Eastern Seaboard, later to be known as The School for Strings.
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