Bill & Doris Preucil
Had it not been for her children tuning into “Captain Kangaroo” one day in 1962, Doris Preucil might never have been introduced to the Suzuki Method.
Her two young boys were watching the television program when a film clip showed scores of Japanese children playing Bach’s Double Concerto. The boys shouted for their mother, a professional violinist and teacher, to come watch.
“It was earth-shaking,” Doris said. “No one had ever seen anything like that before, to see all these little children playing so beautifully. I thought, ‘I need to find out what this is.’”
A half-century later, the Preucil School of Music teaches more than 700 students in its Iowa City classrooms using the Suzuki Method, the same philosophy under which the children in that Japanese film had been schooled.
Doris and husband, Bill, who were instrumental in spreading the method in the U.S., are now retired, but the influence of the school bearing their name still resonates in concert halls around the world. Alumni of the Iowa City school play in major symphonies in the U.S. and Europe, the Preucils have traveled internationally to train music instructors, and future Suzuki teachers have flocked to Iowa City to study their practices.
The Suzuki Method was the brainchild of Shinichi Suzuki, a Japanese violinist who believed that young children could best learn to play music in the same manner that they acquire language skills: Through loving encouragement, constant repetition and the support and enthusiasm of their parents.
Doris taught lessons privately for more than a decade before opening a school at 524 N. Johnson St., the old Czechoslovakian Hall, in 1975, with a former students Sonja Zeithamel.
As the school grew, the Preucils stayed rooted in Iowa City, opening a second location in 2002 on Northgate Drive.
Bill, who was a faculty member for 39 years at the University of Iowa, has taught viola at Preucil School since its inception.
The Preucils’ four children, who toured in their youth as the Preucil Family Players, are now all accomplished professional musicians living across the country.
Doris retired as director in 1997, passing the reins to Zeithamel, but she and Bill still teach lessons four days a week out of their home.
And they’re still spreading Suzuki’s vision.
“His goal was to develop beautiful hearts,” Doris said. “When you think about it, it’s such a wonderful thing because the student, parent and teacher are working together to bring up a well-balanced child and develop their talent, which shines in everything they do.”