The Guitar Society of Toronto celebrates their 70th anniversary at the 2026 Toronto Guitar Weekend. Events take place from April 24 to 26 at St. Andrew’s Church (73 Simcoe St.), and include a feature concert by noted Scottish guitarist David Russell.
Full weekend passes are available, along with separate tickets to two concerts. Pass holders have access to a wealth of activities that include a luthier/vendor fair, masterclasses, extra concerts and recitals, open mic events, brunch with the performing artists, specialty presentations, and a youth competition.
Concerts
Featured Concert: David Russell (April 25)
Scottish classical guitarist David Russell has a busy international career as a performer. He studied music at the Royal Academy, where he won the Julian Bream Guitar Prize twice. He went on to win several international competitions, including the Andrés Segovia Competition, the José Ramírez Competition and Spain’s prestigious Francisco Tárrega Competition.
Among other accolades, he was named a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Music in London in 1997, and won a GRAMMY Award in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music for his CD AIRE LATINO. He was was presented with an Honorary Doctorate in Music by the University of Arizona in Tucson in 2014, and inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Guitar Foundation of America in 2018.
Russell’s career takes him around the globe. He performs regularly at major venues in New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Madrid, Toronto, and Rome.
- Find tickets for the April 25 concert [HERE].
Concert: Music Commissioned by The Guitar Society of Toronto over the past 70 years (April 24)
A string of talented performers will play the many works commissioned by The Guitar Society over the last seven decades, featuring Christ Habib and Maria Milenic, Madeline Hall, Luis Medina and Jean-Luc Therrien, Navid Niknejad, Bahar Ossareh, Daniel Ramjattan & Naoko Tsujita, Daniel Turner.
Christ Habib and Maria Milenic
Christ Habib graduated with a Master’s Degree and the Prize in Chamber Music after 12 years of study at the Conservatoire de Musique de Gatineau. He has also studied with many Masters of the instrument through the Boston International Guitar Academy and the Domaine Forget International Academy. Christ performs both as a soloist, and as a member of the successful Canadian Guitar Quartet, which tours extensively throughout North America.
Croatian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Maria Milenic will make her Toronto Guitar Society debut at the concert. A native of Newmarket, Maria has established a strong musical presence in Toronto,. She is a University of Toronto graduate, and also holds an Advanced Artist Diploma in Voice and Opera studies from the Glenn Gould School. Maria joined the Calgary Opera’s Young Artist Studio as an official McPhee artist in the 2025/26 season.
Madeline Hall
Canadian guitarist and composer Madeline Hall is based in New York City. She studied the guitar at Western University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School. Madeline’s talent has been recognized with wins at multiple competitions, including the Quebec International Music Competition, the Grand Metropolitan International Music Competition, Boston GuitarFest, and the Kiwanis Festival of London.
Luis Medina
Performer, educator, and guitar researcher Luis Angel Medina has performed across the globe, including prominent venues such as the Vancouver Playhouse, the Pyatt Hall, and Koerner Hall. He is the founder of the Vancouver Classical Guitar Festival, and currently teaches at Capilano University. Luis also adjudicates local music festivals, and has been invited to teach at some of Canada’s leading institutions.
He is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto, where his research focuses on contemporary Mexican composer Julio Cesar Oliva and his relationship to the guitar.
Jean-Luc Therrien
Jean-Luc Therrien has an active career as a soloist and chamber musician, and has performed across Canada as well as internationally. He has been a finalist and prizewinner at several competitions, earning recognition at the NTD International Piano Competition in New York, the Mauro Paolo Monopoli Prize in Italy, and the Canadian Music Competition Stepping Stone, among others.
He is also a passionate educator, giving masterclasses, and serving as an adjudicator for organizations such as the Ontario Music Festivals Association and Debut Atlantic. He has also released two albums, one of which was named to CBC’s list of “Canada’s Top 21 Classical Albums of 2021.”
Navid Niknejad
Navid Niknejad holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of Toronto, and has studied the guitar in four countries, beginning in his native Iran. He earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Tehran, studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and followed by earning a Master of Music from California State University. He has also participated in masterclasses with various artists, including Álvaro Pierri, Marcin Dylla, Zoran Dukić, and Pavel Steidl, among others. He performs as a soloist and chamber musician, and has taught in multiple countries worldwide.
Bahar Ossareh
Bahar Ossareh is an Iranian-Canadian classical guitarist. She passionately supports Persian guitar music, while also performing a diverse repertoire that includes music from Canada, the US, Australia, Turkey, Spain, Greece and Latin America. She has appeared on stage as a soloist and chamber musician across North America with The Guitar Society of Toronto, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, Miami Guitar Festival and Austin Classical Guitar.
Bahar earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto, and her talent has been recognized by awards such as the Eaton and Eli Kassner Fellowships. Her recent album, Variations (2025), includes the premiere recording of her original work.
Daniel Ramjattan & Naoko Tsujita
Dr. Daniel Ramjattan has premiered and recorded dozens of chamber and solo works for guitar across Canada. He has performed recitals in Vienna, Austria, Italy, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, Japan, and across North America. Daniel became the head of classical guitar at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2020 at the age of 28 and joined the RCM’s Oscar Peterson School in 2024. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Toronto, where his research on music performance anxiety in guitarists also led to numerous invitations to guest lecture on the topic in Canada, the US, and the West Indies.
Naoko Tsujita (M. Mus) is a Japanese Canadian percussionist and carillonneur. Her busy career has seen her performing in cities in Canada, the US, Austria, South Korea, and Japan. She earned first prize as a composer and arranger in the GCNA Arrangements and Transcriptions Competition (2020), and the Special Jury Mention at the Perpignan Carillon Composition Contest (2019).
Her piece Echoes from the Sea, inspired by hidden Christian chants from her home island in Japan, received the Ontario Arts Council Music Creation Project Grant, and was premiered and released by Daniel Ramjattan in August 2025.
Daniel Turner
Award winning Canadian guitarist, arranger and educator Daniel Turner earned a Bachelors of Musical Arts in Guitar Performance from the University of Windsor, followed by a Master’s in Guitar Performance from the University of Toronto. He is currently working towards his Doctorate in Musical Arts in Guitar Performance at UofT, where his dissertation revolves around guitar fingerings. He will create a guitar fingering guide modelled after patterns used for the violin and piano.
Daniel has performed as a soloist, and as part of several duos, for which he often creates original arrangements. His duo with opera singer Amelia Daigle has performed in France, Spain, and Germany and has also given concerts for Western University and the University of Windsor.
- Find details and tickets for the April 24 concert [HERE].
Weekend Pass & More
- Find weekend passes, and various ticketing options that will give you access to the many events scheduled for 2026 Guitar Weekend Toronto [HERE].
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