Merlin B. Thompson (Ph.d., M.A., B. Mus.) is an award winning educator, musician, and scholar. Merlin is the Creator and Founder of Teach Music 21C - a community of forward-thinking music teachers that's changing the tone of music teaching one lesson at a time. He is an internally recognized authority on the Suzuki Piano Method and the first Canadian to graduate from the Matsumoto Talent Education Research Institute, where he studied with Suzuki Piano Method cofounders Drs. Shinichi Suzuki and Haruko Kataoka. He has worked with hundreds of children, parents, and teachers in workshops, institutes, conferences, established programs, and mentorships throughout Canada, U.S.A., China, Australia, Japan, Spain, Great Britain, and New Zealand. He has given courses in music pedagogy at the Schulich School of Music (McGill University) and social justice in the Werklund School of Education (University of Calgary). He is the author of More than Music Lessons. He also maintains an active piano teaching studio and publishes in numerous international academic journals.