Applebaum, Rolland, and Suzuki

Three of the most important pedagogues whose work was directly involved with string education in the schools were Samuel Applebaum, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki.

Samuel Applebaum studied with Leopold Auer at the Juilliard School. Applebaum taught at the Manhattan School of Music for 35 years. Applebaum's greatest contribution to string education in America was his prolific authoring of written materials for use in string classrooms. Applebaum edited and authored over 400 method books, chamber music collections, solo collections, and pedagogical materials for stringed instruments. He was active in teacher training at ASTA workshops throughout the 1950s and 60s, and was named ASTA teacher of the year in 1967. He was important not because of his revolutionary ideas in string pedagogy, but because of his ability to codify and simplify string pedagogy.

Paul Rolland was born in Budapest, Hungary, and was trained in Europe. His early years were spent as a concert artist. Rolland came to the US in the 1930s and became the head of the string department at Simpson College in Iowa, eventually becoming professor of string education at the University of Illinois. Rolland made significant contributions in the development of a pedagogy based on movement and balance in string playing. His ideas for teaching shifting and vibrato are still very popular to this day. Rolland was also important because when Suzuki toured the US in 1964, Rolland received a grant to create a film Suzuki Teaches American Mothers and Their Children. Rolland also received a government grant in 1967 to study the implementation of his pedagogical ideas in elementary and secondary classroom situations, and he worked with over 35 public school teachers on this project.

PREV |1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | NEXT