Past Seasons

Welcome to the 66th season of the Guitar Society of Toronto!  We are eagerly anticipating a return to live music, and the opportunity to rediscover the power of live performance that we have missed so much.  We are planning to begin with the September concert at St. Andrew’s.  Luckily our beautiful new venue is large enough that physical distancing will not be difficult, and we will ensure all safety advice is met.   When we cancelled the remainder of the season in March 2020, I don’t think any of us… 

Welcome to the 65th season of the Guitar Society of Toronto!  Our 2020-21concert season will be very different from any that has come before, and will be a new experience for us all. When we cancelled the remainder of last season back in March, I don’t think any of us imagined how long the pandemic would continue. But here we are in September, and we, like so many other arts groups, are finding other ways to bring music to you and keep in contact with all of you who love classical… 

Welcome to the 2019-20 season of the Guitar Society of Toronto! This season we are excited to welcome many wonderful international artists to our concert stage.  Several – such as season opener Mak Grgic, and GFA winner Raphaël Feuillâtre – are making their Toronto debut.  Others are making a welcome return, including Xuefei Yang in January, and Judicaël Perroy in February.  Jason Vieaux, our feature performer for the Toronto Guitar Weekend, has not played for us since 2010!  As you can see on our Concerts page, we continue throughout the… 

In case you missed it, here is the live-to-air radio concert ‘Toronto Guitar Weekend live at Zoomer Hall’ on classical 96.3FM.

Welcome to the 2018-19 season of the Guitar Society of Toronto! This season we are privileged to welcome many exciting international artists to our concert stage. Several – such as the Texas Guitar Quartet, our season opener – are making their first-ever appearance in Toronto.  Others are making welcome return appearances – including Paraguayan virtuoso Berta Rojas, whose performance here five years ago was one of our most popular and successful concerts. Berta will be the feature artist at the sixth Toronto Guitar Weekend next April – a wonderful opportunity… 

It is with great sadness that we announce that Ann Kassner passed away on the afternoon of Saturday, August 12, 2017. For more than forty years Ann was Eli Kassner’s constant companion, his beloved partner both in guitar and in life. Through their years together Ann partnered with Eli in everything — from teaching and travelling the world, to creating the world’s first international guitar festivals, to working together in the garden they loved. Hundreds of people who shared her passion for the guitar, from the world’s finest performers to… 

Welcome to the 2017-18 season of the Guitar Society of Toronto! The season opens September 16 with a concert by the extraordinarily versatile American guitarist David Leisner.  As you can see on our Concerts page, we continue throughout the year with many exciting international artists coming to perform for us. The regular season will conclude in March with the return to Toronto of the Grammy Award winning virtuoso David Russell, who has not performed here in many years. April will feature the fifth version of our very popular Toronto Guitar… 

We are delighted to tell you that on June 30, the Government of Canada announced that our founder Eli Kassner has been named to the Order of Canada, our country’s highest civilian honour. The Order of Canada “recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to  the community and service to the nation.  The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country. Eli’s contributions to music in Canada have been immense. When he… 

Welcome to the 2015-16 season of the Guitar Society of Toronto! I am honoured to greet you as the newly elected president of this venerable organization, and am well aware of the responsibility of heading up one of the oldest and most respected guitar societies in the world. The Society was founded by Eli Kassner in 1956: this season we will be celebrating of our 60th anniversary! We begin with a special reception at our first concert in September, and continue throughout the year. Join us for the Toronto Guitar…