Takako Nishizaki founded her violin studio in 2005 with the aim of raising the standards of violin teaching and playing in Hong Kong. She is the first student of Shinichi Suzuki to complete the now famous Suzuki Violin School and received her teaching diploma at the tender age of nine. She subsequently studied with famous teachers at Japan's Toho School of Music and at the Juilliard School of Musi
c in New York. In Hong Kong and China Takako Nishizaki has become famous for her performances and recordings of Chinese violin music, especially the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto. Her teaching method combines the best elements of the Suzuki Method and of traditional teaching with her own experience as a teacher and word-class concert and recording artist. The violin studio is not operated for profit and is supported by Naxos, the world's leading classical record label. The studio only accepts students whose parents are fully committed to the violin studies of their children. Ms Nishizaki personally interviews parents and children before accepting them into the studio. One parent must accompany his/her child to every lesson and must learn the basic elements of violin playing himself or herself, enabling the parent to teach the child at home, in between the Studio lessons. Students receive individual lessons from assistants who were trained by Ms Nishizaki. She monitors the progress of every student at group lessons which are organised once a month. The very best students have the opportunity to study with her personally. Ms Nishizaki insists that all students master the basics from the very beginning so as to enable them to become professional musicians later life, should they choose the life of a musician. Learning the violin is more difficult than learning any other instrument. Learning the violin helps develop a child's memory, concentration and eye-hand coordination and most of the students also excel at their other studies in school. While students winning prizes at competitions is not the primary purpose of the Violin Studio, participating in competitions is an incentive for the students to practice their instrument. The studio has been more successful than any other instituation in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. In 2013 alone 28 students won prizes, many in competition with much older students. The Studio holds its annual student concert at Hong Kong University's prestigious Loke Yew Hall, an indication of the high reputation the Studio enjoys in Hong Kong.
