John Kendall, the violin pedagogue who brought Suzuki teaching techniques to the US, has died at the age of 93. Kendall, who studied at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Columbia University Teachers College, was introduced to the Suzuki method in 1958, when he saw a film of 750 Japanese Suzuki students playing the Bach Double Violin Concerto.

After visiting Shinichi Suzuki in Japan in 1959, Kendall began work to instigate Suzuki teaching methods in the US, publishing the first English-language edition of the method books and organising a 1964 concert tour by Japanese Suzuki students. From 1963 until 1994 he was director of the strings development programme at Southern Illinois University. He also took Suzuki workshops and demonstrations across the US and to Europe, South America and Australia.

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