Seminars are organized as two-year courses. In the first year, each Seminar meets for two hours a week for an in-depth discussion of the Suzuki philosophy and approach and conducts an intensive investigation of the performance and teaching problems of the Suzuki musical materials. In addition to weekly discussions, Seminar members spend a minimum of two hours per week observing lessons and classes in the school.
In the second-year, Seminar members become the faculty in The School for Strings’ Start-up Program, a program for children whose families cannot afford the School’s regular rates. Seminar members give individual lessons to the students in the program and rotate leading group-playing classes. This teaching is closely supervised and evaluated by the instructor of the Seminar. The Seminar discussion class meets immediately following the teaching in the Start-up Program.
In the first year, papers are assigned periodically on such topics as Suzuki philosophy, explanations of the Suzuki approach and analysis of the teaching problems in the Suzuki musical materials. In the second year, reports are assigned on literature pertaining to performance and teaching of the specific instrument.
Each Seminar is offered as a graduate level course at The Juilliard School and at New York University. The School for Strings' Teacher Training Program has been approved by the Suzuki Association of the Americas as a recognized Long-Term Teacher Training Program. Students who successfully complete the two-year course are eligible to register with the Association as teachers who have fulfilled the Association’s training requirements. The School itself issues each graduate an open Letter of Recommendation.
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