Peter Suzuki

Peter Suzuki's career parallels the rise of Yamaha and the highly successful Yamaha Music Schools in Japan and the United States. Mr. Suzuki started with Yamaha in 1962 as a retail keyboard salesman in Tokyo. Faced with ever-increasing Electone Organ production, Mr. Suzuki realized the Electone to be the ideal keyboard teaching tool and successor to the reed organ for young students in Japan. This spurred music education and the Electone to even greater sales and national renown and vaulted Mr. Suzuki to national manager of educational programs in the Yamaha Education and Promotion Division, which would later become the Yamaha Music Foundation. Following success in Japan, he was sent to the United States to develop the Yamaha Music Schools and accompanying teaching philosophy with the cooperation of participating U.S. retailers. He would eventually rise to the position of president of Yamaha Corporation of America and later headed Steinway & Sons Japan. Having espoused music education throughout his career, he always reflects fondly on the enhancement and invigoration of music education in Japan that was fostered by the Yamaha Electone Organ.