History

Our story begins twenty years before the Guitar Society was created. On February 6, 1936, Andrés Segovia performed for the first time at Hart House for the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. The maestro was to return twenty-five more times, up to 1982. In those days, the classical guitar was pretty much non-existent in Toronto. In the 1940s, there were a few individuals who played the instrument, pioneers like Ivan Maracle, Norman Chapman, Clarke Russell, and Bertram Atkins. Chapman was a merchant marine who had taken intermittent lessons with Isaias Savio in São Paulo. He played on CBC radio, and on November 1, 1948, gave what might have been the first classical guitar recital given by a Canadian in Toronto. Atkins was a banker who had studied with William Foden, Luise Walker, and Emilio Pujol, and gave lessons in his home.

The catalyst for the founding of the Society was Eli Kassner, who arrived in Toronto at the end of December 1951 with his wife and two children. He found work at the venerable music store Whalley-Royce. Guitarists would come into the store to buy strings, and Eli became friends with them. They included Eugene Lucas, John Perrone, Norman Chapman, and Bertram Atkins. Soon, they began getting together for informal sessions. In 1952, the English engineer John Bonfield arrived, and joined the group. When Eli gave up his job at the music store to become a full-time guitar teacher, his new students, inspired by his playing in the store, were added to the roster of guitar enthusiasts. Among them were Olive Wehrstein, Pat Hooper, Isabelita Alonso, Bernie Hemrin, and Bob Harper.  The British journal Guitar News reported that in February, 1954 the first meeting of this group, now numbering twelve, was held in Eli’s studio, who had converted his garage into a studio.

By the fall of 1956, these impromptu monthly gatherings had become so frequent that it was decided to try to form a society. The name was suggested by Bertram Atkins, who noted that calling it the “Guitar Society of Toronto” rather than the “Toronto Guitar Society” would make it easier to find in the telephone book. And so it was that in December 1956, the Society was launched. The first official meeting took place on January 6, 1957. It was modelled after the “New York Society of the Classic Guitar.” Atkins had been one of the organizers of the New York society back in 1938, when he lived in that city. Isabelita Alonso, a fine folk singer and amateur guitarist, a Spanish woman who had grown up in England, volunteered to be the first secretary.

Isabelita began dashing off letters announcing the infant society. On March 4, 1957, she wrote to Segovia’s management, Sol Hurok, asking permission to approach the Maestro with the request that he “accept the Honorary Presidency of the Guitar Society of Toronto.” A month later, she learned that Segovia had accepted the honour. After he performed the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Concerto in Toronto on April 9, a party was held in his honour at the home of Dr. Bill Goodman, one of the founding members.  Segovia gave impromptu lessons to two of the members: Eli played the Villa-Lobos first Prelude, and Olive the Sor Bm etude. It was at this gathering that Segovia invited Eli to study with him in Santiago de Compostela on a scholarship. Isabelita wrote to Segovia the following month to thank him, and noted that they were spurred on to achieve ideals of high musical standards at “the memorable hour you spent criticizing us so patiently.” She wrote again on October 14, and Segovia responded, “thank you so much for your kind letter, and I am extremely pleased that the Guitar Society of Toronto is intensifying its efforts on behalf of our noble instrument. It should not only be loved, but also made to be loved.”

The fledgling society would meet monthly at the Sinai Restaurant and artists were invited to perform. In due course, a variety of sites were chosen. By the end of 1957, a membership list included forty-four names, including the composer Harry Somers and Ken Young, who was to become the long-term secretary after Isabelita. Somers gave a talk on “the composer and the guitar” on October 1. The lutenist Hans Kohlund and jazz guitarist Ed Bickert were invited to play. Inspired by this, a concert committee was struck and it was decided to invite the famous Cuban-American guitarist José Rey de la Torre to perform. Ten “angels” contributed the funds to pay Rey’s fee. On January 8, 1958, the first concert sponsored by the Society was presented at the Eaton Auditorium. The hall sold out, and a profit was realized, which was given by the contributors to establish a scholarship fund to promote guitar study.

On March 23, the bylaws (basically taken from the New York society) were adopted, and Eli Kassner was elected as the first President, a position he would hold for the next ten years. Isabelita became Vice President, Stan Smith treasurer, and Ken Young secretary. The 1957-58 season had three meetings with speakers, three members’ concerts, and Rey’s recital. These continued the following year. Julian Bream’s Toronto debut on November 6, 1958 was very inspirational, and performances by members intensified. Harry Somers was commissioned to write an original work. In August 1959, Eli was finally able to take up Segovia’s offer to study at the summer school in Santiago de Compostela. Upon his return, he began teaching classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

The Society’s second concert, on October 10 1959, presented the Mexican guitarist Gustavo Lopez, then living in New York. The 28^th of November saw the Society sponsor the great Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Diaz’ Toronto debut, followed on March 12 by the American James Yoghourtjian. Other noted guitarists followed: the Cuban-American Alberto Valdes-Blain (November 1960), Siegfried Behrend (April 1961), Charlie Byrd (October 1961), the Japanese guitarist Jiro Matsuda (March 1962), Lenny Breau (November 1962), Julian Bream (March 1963), the Duo Presti-Lagoya (March 1964), Narciso Yepes (October 1965), John Williams (March 1968), Oscar Ghiglia (April 1970), Christopher Parkening (April 1971), and the Abreu Brothers Duo (February 1972).

By the mid 1960’s the results of the ten-year-old Society’s efforts to develop native-born Canadian classical guitarists appeared, with recitals by Martin Polacsek, John Liberatore, Lynne Gangbar, Gordon O’Brien, Liona Boyd, and Norbert Kraft, to name a few. All of these successes inspired the Board of the Society to organize the first North American classical guitar festival ever held, “Guitar ’75.” Held from June 23 – 28, it represented a watershed moment in the development of the guitar not only in Toronto but in North America. Four more followed, in three-year intervals, until the most ambitious of all, “Guitar ’87,” which featured the premiere of Leo Brouwer’s “Concerto de Toronto.” The principal organizer of all of the festivals, along with the “idea man” Eli Kassner, was Joan York, who still attends our concerts. Along the way, the Society commissioned many new works, showcased young, emerging Canadian artists, and presented the crème de la crème of international guitarists. Its triennial competitions marked the establishment of many careers. The early mimeographed Bulletins gave way to glossy publications, including “Guitar Canada.”

A “Guitar ‘90” was in advanced planning stages, but had to be cancelled because national, provincial and local arts funding, which had sustained the five previous festivals, had completely dried up. In the late 90’s, Thomas Kirchoff and Dale Kavanagh worked hard to create a sixth festival, but again, funding was lacking, and their efforts were abandoned. Throughout the problematic years of the 1990s and into the resurgent 21^st century, though, the Society continued to bring in elite guitarists from all over the world: Alvaro Pierri, Alice Artzt, David Russell, Gene Bertoncini, lutenist Hopkinson Smith, Jorge Morel, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Badi Assad, Jorge Cardoso, Celso Machado, Remi Boucher, Pavel Steidl, SoloDuo, Roland Dyens, Jorge Caballero, Xuefei Yang, Fabio Zanon, Zoran Dukic, Paulo Martelli, Thibaut Garcia, Berta Rojas, the Beijing Duo, Maximo Diego Pujol, and Jérémy Jouve—and this is just a sampling. The international festivals were replaced with more modest weekend seminars, and the now iconic “Toronto Guitar Weekend.” The early members’ concerts have given way to “open mic” nights at different venues.

The Society weathered the difficult years of COVID, when live concerts had to be cancelled, but we continued to present online events. Throughout the seventy-year history of the Guitar Society, we have been able to succeed where so many other societies have fallen by the wayside. We are now the second oldest continuous organization of its kind in the Americas, and, indeed, one of the oldest in the world. This has been due to the efforts of generations of volunteers—professionals, amateurs, aficionados all—who have worked endlessly to fulfill Segovia’s dictum to the young Society – “no solo debe amarse le sino hacerlo amar” [Not only should it be loved, but also made to be loved.]