What We Studied
Lessons with and from Dr. Suzuki

A graduate of the Suzuki Talent Education Institute, Hiroko studied with Dr. Suzuki,
William Starr, Peter McHugh, Mimi Zweig and Brenda Brunner.
A Teacher Trainer and active chamber musician, she is currently the director of the Suzuki School of Louisville.

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Helen Higa comes from a family with 3 generations of Japanese and Western music teachers, and was born and raised in Honolulu. Her Suzuki Teacher training includes study with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki for two and a half years at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, where she received her Teacher Certification from him in 1973. She continued her Suzuki teacher training at the University of Tennessee with William Starr, Louise Behrend at the School for Strings, and the late Hiroko Primrose in Hawaii. In NYC, she also worked with Gerald Beal on violin performance skills. Helen is currently the Director of the Suzuki Violin Program at Punahou Music School and a part time member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

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Donna Lim (Violin, viola) received her Suzuki teaching certificate from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan. She is presently teaching at the Suzuki Music Studio of San Francisco and was the conductor of the Cadet and Senior Orchestras for the Golden Gate Philharmonic. Donna founded the Round Valley Strings and was its director for 17 years. Besides maintaining a violin/viola studio, she has taught kindergarten for 17 years as well as middle school orchestra for 8 years. She has been honored to be in the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 1991 and 1994. She is also included in the Who’s Who Among American Women for 2010-2011 and Who’s Who in America starting in 2012 until the present, culminating in the Who’s Who in America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Musical accomplishments include president of the Suzuki Music Association of California, director of the Northern California Suzuki Institute since 1993, editor of the International Suzuki Journal, teacher at the Dominican University Suzuki program, co-founder and director of a concert series—Music in Round Valley. She has been a registered teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas since 1985. She plays viola with the Symphony Parnassus and has played violin for the Mendocino Music Festival, Cal Performances and sang in the soprano section of the San Francisco Bach Choir.

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Edmund Sprunger, Missouri. BA in music from Goshen College, MSW from the University of Michigan (with a minor in administration), and extensive training at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. In addition to his teaching, he is also a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice, and the author of two books. His diverse set of skills and experiences includes having studied in Japan with Dr. Suzuki, as well as in China in the 1980’s. He also serves as the Director of Community Education at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, and as a Board member for the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

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