Profile

Taichi Akutsu, Professor of Music and Early Childhood Music Education at Okayama Prefectural University is a Japanese violinist-teacher-researcher. His degrees include a BM, from Tokyo College of Music; a MM, from Manhattan School of Music (2005); and a MA, from Lehman College, CUNY (2011) and PhD in Education, from Tokyo Gakugei University. Taichi studied the violin with Masaoki Inoue, Yoko Seto, Lewis Kaplan, Yoko Takebe, Lisa Kim and Glenn Dicterow, former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Taichi was also a violinist of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas (2006-2009). He gained teaching experiences in community music schools and public schools in NYC and Miami, Florida. While focusing on children’s musical engagement and human development, Taichi recently presented research and practice on music education in Helsinki, New Orleans, Seattle, Miami, New York, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore, Tokyo and Malka, Malaysia. He has published on issues of strings education, and young children’s engagement with the violin, and musical development; recent titles include “Changes after Suzuki: A retrospective analysis and review of contemporary issues regarding the Suzuki Method in Japan” (International Journal of Music Education); “Observable flow experience in a two-year-old Japanese child’s violin playing” (Music Education Research”; “Constructing a fast protocol for middle school beginner violin classes in Japan” (International Journal of Music Education). He is also a faculty member of Seisa University where he conducts his research on distance music education to build a musical community.