Founded on September 26, 2014, we are now over ten years old. After 16 months of planning and preliminary meetings, our very first meetup was held in a house owned by one of our first members near Kingston Road on January 17, 2016. It could hold only ten attendees. But from that day forward, we continued to meet at each other’s houses.

Our membership grew fast, so we had to look for an outside venue in order to accommodate more members. Five months later, a member who was a piano teacher offered her school where she taught. We rented the Grand Room, which had a Yamaha grand piano; it could hold 35 people. It was the Regent Park School of  Music at Regent Park in Dundas Street East. We met 18 times there, once a month, before a fire broke out in the school and damaged the venue.

The following month, we met at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church on Bloor Street. We only met once there because the following month, we moved to St. George the Martyr Church, where we met for 11 meetups, ending on December 14, 2019.

Because the pandemic hit, in-person meetings were not allowed.

Wanting to continue, we organized meetups online through Zoom. Being virtual, we became international. We met up with piano groups like us, six times in total. They were the following:

1. July 19, 2020 – with the Bay Area, San Francisco piano group;
2. Nov. 15, 2020 – with the London, United Kingdom piano group;
3. Feb. 27, 2021 – with the Vienna, Austria piano group;
4. April 25, 2021 – with the Chicago North piano group;
5. May 15, 2021 – once more with the Bay Area, San Francisco group; and
6. June 12, 2021 – with Jen’s Piano Friends of New York.

The 6th Zoom meeting was the last time the CPS met during the pandemic. Since our inception, we’ve had a total of 49 events.

And then, three years and nine months later, propelled by our passion for the piano, we decided to relaunch in-person meetups. On March 25, 2023, we successfully held a meetup dubbed “A New Beginning: Old Friends, New Friends.” It was held in our new headquarters, the Avenue Road Music and Performing Arts Academy at 460 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario, and was remarkably successful.

Our members got to perform at the Gordon Lightfoot Performance Hall, which has two grand pianos: a Steinway and a 92-key Bosendorfer. Repertoire for two pianos was introduced for the first time. Our socials, during the intermission, were held at the Academy’s reception hall, boardroom and built-in kitchenette.

On December 23, 2023, we moved to the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation, which could accommodate up to 120 persons and has a Steinway grand and a sound system and projector/screen set up.

We invite you to join us and feel the warmth of Toronto’s finest piano community!

Founded with the vision of creating a supportive environment for piano lovers, the Canadian Piano Society hosts monthly gatherings where members can perform, learn, and grow. We are committed to nurturing talent and promoting the joy of piano playing throughout Canada.

The Canadian Piano Society (CPS) is quite different from other piano groups in the Greater Toronto Area.

First of all, we’re not a recital group. Recitals are formal events. Our meetups are known for their informal ambience.

With the CPS, pianists come to the piano to perform for like-minded people and pianists like themselves, bringing their practice from their living rooms to a venue where mistakes are really not a big deal. Many CPS members have gotten rid of their stage fright because of this.

There are practically no time limits for performances, although, of course, everyone understands that there are others who want to perform, too. No programme forms are printed; it’s so informal that anyone can change their mind about which piece they want to play at the moment.

The meetups are really fun piano parties, and being a Society, socials are part of the fun.

We invite you to come to our monthly get-togethers and will warmly welcome you as happy members of the Canadian Piano Society.

★★★★★

“The workshops have significantly improved my playing technique. I highly recommend them to anyone looking to grow as a pianist.”

Sophia L.