European Suzuki Association - Teachers Newsletter Vol 38 2018

21 S uzuki teaching started in Ice- land at the beginning of the 1980s. Two violin teachers, Mi- chael Clarke and Lilja Hjaltadóttir studied with John Kendall in Ed- wardsville, Illinois, one of the pio- neers of the Suzuki Method in the U.S.A. and brought their knowledge with them when they moved back to Iceland. Michael had moved to Iceland from Great Britain and started working at the Music School of Akureyri, in the northern part of the country in the 1970s. After taking a leave of absence for studies with Mr. Ken- dall, Michael started Suzuki teach- ing at the music school in the early 1980s. He taught Suzuki violin for a number of years, but later stopped teaching the violin and became an accomplished singer and singing teacher. Around the same time, at the be- ginning of the 1980s, Lilja Hjaltadóttir, together with her pia- nist husband Kristinn Örn Kristins- son, returned to Iceland and start- ed teaching at the Music School of Akureyri. Her student body quickly grew, and Suzuki violin became very popular. Lilja and Kristinn lat- er moved to the capital Reykjavík, where they now run their own school the Allegro Suzuki Music School. Haukur F. Hannesson returned to Iceland after studying ‘cello at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Suzuki cello teaching with Annette Costanzi in London in 1983. He immediately started teaching Suzuki ‘cello in Reykjavík in addition to his job as a full time ‘cellist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In 1985 Haukur took the initiative to start the Icelandic Suzuki Association. The associa- tion became a member of the European Suzuki Association in 1987. As Haukur’s group of cello stu- dents grew, it became apparent that a solid base for Suzuki teach- ing in Reykjavík needed to be cre- ated. Consequently, he founded the Reykjavík Suzuki School of Music in 1988, a music school funded by the city of Reykjavík and the Ministry of Education in a similar fashion to other music schools in Iceland at the time. The school still exists, employs fourteen teachers and has a large student body. Haukur later left Iceland and has been living mostly in Sweden since the mid 1990s. He was for many years the Chair- man of the ESA as well as being Chair of the ISA and is currently the Honorary President of the ESA. When Haukur started ‘cello groups in Iceland, he recruited his mother Kristjana Pálsdóttir as pi- ano accompanist. Kristjana, who had taught piano for many years, became interested in the Suzuki Method for piano. When the Dan- ish Suzuki teacher trainer Peter Hagn-Meincke, started his training course for piano in Denmark, Kris- tjana decided to enrol in the course and travelled for a number of years from Iceland to Denmark for her training. She then started Suzuki piano in Iceland and taught a large group of piano pupils until retire- ment. Through her contact with Peter Hagn-Meincke, the Icelandic Suzuki Association set up a teacher training course for Suzuki piano with Peter as teacher trainer in the late 1980s. One of the first teach- ers to train there was Kristinn Örn Kristinsson, who in addition to a successful career as accompanist has also taught a large number of Suzuki piano pupils. These pioneers Haukur, Kristjana, Lilja and Kristinn Örn all became ESA teacher trainers and have trained a number of Icelandic Suzu- ki teachers through the years. Spotlight on Iceland Haukur F Hannesson Kristjana Pálsdóttir Lilja Hjaltadóttir Kristinn Örn Kristinsson The Pioneers of Suzuki Teaching