History

In the summer of 1971, Herman Dilmore conducted a Suzuki teacher training workshop in London, Ontario, and one of the people who attended this course was Bruce Johnston, a high school music teacher in the Toronto area.  It was Bruce’s wife, Jean, however, who was a violinist and took this training the following summer, and started the Thornhill School of Suzuki String Teaching, first at her home then at Toronto Montessori Schools.  The son of the principal of this school, Helma Trass, was the program’s first student.  Bruce had also participated in the program as a cello teacher using the Sato adaptation of the Suzuki approach. Jean became involved in audiopsychophonology and in 1977, a violinist-parent, Rinie Hoppe, was hired to take over the program until September 1979 when Wendy Seravalle-Smith was hired.

Wendy was first exposed to Suzuki materials in her high school music class with Bruce Johnston, but then took Karen Dilmore-Zielinski’s pedagogical course while studying at the University of Western Ontario. While Wendy was at Althouse Faculty of Education in 1979, Professor Patrick Burroughs, whose daughter, Lisa, was studying Suzuki violin, invited Daphne Hughes to come and talk about the Suzuki Method and teaching.

In the Spring of 1979, Wendy noticed a job opening for the Toronto Montessori Schools Suzuki Program and applied not knowing the connection with her former high school teacher. Wendy taught at Toronto Montessori Schools until June 1985 at which time an independent program was established using the name Thornhill School of Suzuki String Teaching, with the permission of Jean and Bruce Johnston who started the program in 1972.

The Thornhill School of Suzuki String Teaching has available the Bruce Johnston Memorial Scholarship to assist program students to attend a Suzuki Summer Institute.