This program is a private studio directed by teacher Vivian Crespo-Almond, who has 15 years of experience in this field. The last seven of those years have been in the Northern Virginia area.

Mrs. Crespo-Almond holds a BM in Violin performance from the University of Arkansas. Furthermore she is certified by the SAA, Suzuki Association of the Americas and has studied under renown Suzuki Teacher Trainer Ronda Cole at University of Maryland. In addition Mrs. Almond has taken a wealth of enrichment courses offered by the SAA under certified teacher trainers throughout her years of teaching.

The studio is committed to the education of children through the "Talent Development" and "Mother Tongue" approaches developed by Dr. Suzuki. Beginning, intermediate and advanced students are accepted. Minimum age 3 years old. Young children are strongly encouraged to observe as much as possible before enrolling. For further information please contact the Studio by e-mail or phone at (703) 876-8984.

Talent development is rather a daring idea that contradicts the old myth that people are either born talented or not. Dr. Suzuki came to this conclusion after observing that young children are capable of adapting to their environment no matter how harsh or unlikely it might seem. In this era of science his theories are getting positive reviews.

The idea that environment stimulus can actually increase a child's potential or "talent" is not so far fetched anymore. Moreover, early childhood studies reveal that music training can in effect create neuropathological ways which increase a child's spatial-temporal reasoning abilities. Math and science learning rely heavily upon this ability. This suggests that music instruction produces long-term modifications in underlying neural circuitry in regions not primarily concerned with music.

"Children all over the world speak their native languages." Dr. Suzuki made this apparently unimportant observation and saw deeper than anyone had before. If ALL children are capable of learning their language then they are ALL capable of learning.

He modeled his violin teaching method after language learning. The utterances and first words of a baby are celebrated with joy. Every step is savored by the entire family as little treasures that will only come around once and therefore the baby is encouraged to improve his ability to speak.

All children learn to speak at their own pace and the thought of pushing them to speak more words, faster and better than other babies is almost ridiculous. As time goes on, a baby becomes a child who has a rather large vocabulary before reading and writing are introduced. After four decades Suzuki has shown the world that his theories work if applied.