This program provides Toronto audiences with world class guitar performances. It has been in place for more than half a century.

 

This past year we hosted our 8th annual Symposium. featuring a concert by perhaps the most important living guitarist, John Williams. This was presented in co-operation with the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Aaron Brock Foundation.

 

With this concert, we provide an opportunity for top rank Canadian artists to perform on our stage. It also serves to make our audience aware of the extraordinary artistic talent bred in this country.

 

The Guitar Society supports learning through classical music and classical guitar both by providing free access to our concerts to inner city students and by sponsoring masterclasses for elite students at the University of Toronto.

 

The Guitar Society continues to provide three endowed scholarships in the name of our founder and artistic director emeritus, Eli Kassner. These are an undergraduate entrance scholarship, a graduate entrance scholarship, and a yearly award to an outstanding performance-stream student.

 

Although the Guitar Society has long acknowledged its role in education and increasing awareness of the guitar, we have recently increased our commitment in this domain and have developed new programs. We are particularly excited by our Performance Outreach Residency in which we will fund ten concerts in schools, retirement homes and care facilities.

 

This past year we launched a very successful membership campaign which generated funds and helped develop our audience.

 

This year we have made extraordinary strides in improving our web interface with our stakeholders by designing and launching a new website which is updated every month. We have added a Paypal utility for ticket purchase and donations.

 

This year we launched this new program in which a sponsor funds a concert by a visiting artist of their choice.