Nakamura was one of Australia’s leading Suzuki Method teachers and was honorary president of the New South Wales Suzuki Association
Influential Suzuki Method teacher Yasuki Nakamura AM died on 17 September, aged 82.
Nakamura was the New South Wales Suzuki Association honorary president in Sydney, Australia. He moved to Sydney from Japan in 1979, after former president Harold Brissenden asked Dr Shinichi Suzuki to bring over a Suzuki teacher from Japan to expand the method in Australia. Nakamura became one of the country’s leading teachers of both Suzuki teachers and students, as well as an influential figure in various music organisations across Australia.
In a statement, current president of Suzuki Music in Sydney Takao Mizushima said of Nakamura: ’We are very saddened to lose Mr Nakamura, whom we revere, as I believe that without his achievements, the current Suzuki Association in Sydney would not exist.’
Nakamura was born in 1942 in Tokyo, Japan, and learnt the violin from a young age. After a positive experience with the Suzuki Association during his first trip to Australia in 1979, Nakamura returned to Japan to make arrangements to move permanently to Australia with his wife and three children. As his studio grew in the following years, he became one of the most prominent Suzuki Method teachers in Sydney. Over the years, he taught thousands of students and countless Suzuki teachers, thus expanding the reach of the Suzuki Method across New South Wales (NSW) and Australia.
In the late 1980s, when Brissenden became ill, Nakamura stepped in and became president of the NSW Suzuki Association. It was in this role that he began travelling across the country to train teachers and teach students nationally.
In 2013, Nakamura was awarded honorary membership of the Order of Australia by the Governor-General of Australia for his contribution to music education.
A funeral service will be held at 1:30pm (Sydney time) on 26 September at Forest Baptist Church in Sydney. The service will also be livestreamed on YouTube. The link can be found here.
He is survived by his wife Yoshiko Nakamura, and his children Masaki, Hikari, and Airena, all of which went into the musical field professionally.
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