PREUCIL’S LEGACY

BY SHANZA SAMI DESIGN BY TAELIM YOON

A vast array of children illuminated the screen sitting before two little boys, interrupting the Captain Kangaroo program playing on Doris Preucil’s TV screen. “All of a sudden, my boys started yelling that I had to come quickly,” Preucil recalls, “...and here was this movie of a couple hundred little kids in Japan playing the Bach Double Concerto which, at that time, our kids were playing in high school.” Intrigued, Preucil explored numerous music magazines from library to library, finally stumbling upon a teacher from Ohio, who had traveled to Japan on a grant. She reached out to the teacher, to receive more insight on his findings with the children learning music in Japan — it was then that Preucil had learned about the Suzuki Method.

The Suzuki Method is a comprehensive process used to accelerate musical development at an early age, employing the use of techniques such as facilitating music growth at an early age, listening to repertoire, and the rigorous involvement of parents. During Preucil’s time, the Suzuki Method was considered unconventional, and often looked down upon, by the vast majority of musicians. This unorthodox approach contrasted with traditional music learning, employing the use of repetition, familiarization with the instrument before reading notes, and prioritizing student immersion in peer-based training.

While the Suzuki Method had been rejected by thousands of musicians around the world, Preucil was drawn to the educational philosophy — possibly due to the fact that Preucil herself learned music in an equally unconventional way.

From the start of her child - hood, Preucil reflects on the impact her parents had on her musical development. Both of Preucil’s parents were musicians, with her father being a violinist, and mother a pianist. Preucil’s early exposure to music led her to begin piano lessons earlier than the age of three with her mother, a practice considered unusual at the time. “...and [my mother] started me in a very interesting way. She wrote the names of the notes on the keys of the C-scale, so I learned the alphabet and the C-scale that way, and that was a very good thing because you can train your ear…and I found out I had perfect pitch.” Perfect pitch is a phenomena that occurs when an individual can innately identify any musical note by name after hearing it, without reference to other notes — an ability that only 0.01% of people possess, according to the University of Chicago.

Perfect pitch was one of many talents Preucil possessed throughout her musical career. As Preucil progressed through her classical music development, Preucil’s parents realized that their daughter had a gift for both playing and listening to music, and was soon branded with the title of being a child prodigy.

As a result of her extraordinary ability to produce music, Preucil was granted numerous musical opportunities at an early age. Preucil would serve almost as a ‘mascot’ for the Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, and grew up getting to know the orchestra musicians there. Preucil notes that her connection with the Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra has a multitude of advantages. “When I learned a concerto, he’d let me play it with the orchestra -- I got a lot of experience.”

At the age of 16, the minimum age at which Preucil could join the orchestra, Preucil was inducted in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. During Preucil’s junior and senior years, the Eastman Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra accepted a few students, one of which was Preucil. “We toured up and down the East coast and played concerts all over. It was fun,” Preucil recalls.

Throughout her childhood, Preucil recalls. “I would play a con - certo on the violin, and [my father] would accompany me on the piano. He would play a concert on the violin and I would accompany him on the piano. If we got to a hard spot that neither of us could play — of course he could play it, but if I couldn’t play the piano part — we skip it; it was a very happy way to learn. ” son Auditorium to acquiring the Preucil School of Music main campus building. “We worked like crazy during Christmas vacation, because [the building] had not been used for years -- it was dirty. We had to refinish the floors, paint the walls, do the woodwork. My husband was up on scaffolding of the top of the auditorium, and he did this stenciling that took him a year and a half. I made the curtains with my sister.”

This dilemma continued to puzzle Preucil, as she considered ways to foster musical development with her own children, which fueled her curiosity for the Suzuki Method. Growing up learning music solo, Preucil was determined to utilize a peer-based educational philosophy — something the Suzuki Method strongly advocated for.

Shinichi Suzuki’s visit to Iowa in 1969 marked the start of Preucil’s legacy spanning over multiple decades. Suzuki felt compelled to spread the Suzuki philosophy to smaller towns, and shared his exceptional pedagogy with classical music teachers in Iowa. Preucil used her experiences with Suzuki to build on her own knowledge, not only to teach her children, but to educate her community. Preucil decided to share her love for music with her community through establishing a music school in Iowa City, using Suzuki’s philosophies to nurture the youth and develop numerous classical ensembles, otherwise known as Preucil School of Music.

Founding Preucil School of Music presented many challenges. Preucil recalls the strenuous labor required to establish aspects of the school, from painting the walls of Wil -

Ultimately, Preucil’s efforts paid off. “We opened up [the school] in January of ‘75.” Preucil’s legacy continues to stand to this day, instructing students in violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, flute, and harp. Be it her passion for music or dedication to bring music to the community, Doris Preucil continues to hold a substantial impact on the