Eli Kassner is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 guitar

Classical guitar

The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...

 teacher and musician.

Eli Kassner studied guitar in Vienna and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 prior to moving to Canada in 1951. He performed until 1967.

In 1956, he founded the Guitar Society of Toronto. He was its president from 1960 to 1966 and artistic director from 1970 to 2008. In 1967, he established the Eli Kassner Guitar Academy.

He established the guitar program at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 and the The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 (RCMT) in 1959 and started the University of Toronto Guitar Ensemble in 1978.

In the 1970s, Kassner became interested in microphotography, and worked as a composer and performer for the CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 Television series The Lively Arts

The Lively Arts

The Lively Arts was a weekly half-hour CBC Television programme about arts and culture. It ran from October 1961 to June 1964. The show was composed of filmed and studio interviews, either produced by the CBC or purchased from the BBC and others....

and The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on the CBC on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging...

.

Notable students

• Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
  
  
• Jesse Cook
  Jesse Cook
  Jesse Cook is a Toronto-based guitarist, born in Paris to Canadian parents. Like other guitarists of his style of music, he incorporates funky jazz, latin & world music into his playing. Cook is also well known for the energy of his live shows. He has contributed to the Afro Celt Sound System album...
  
  
• Robert Bauer
  Robert Bauer
  Robert F. Bauer is an American attorney who previously served as White House Counsel under President of the United States Barack Obama.-Education:...
  
  
• Liona Boyd
  Liona Boyd
  Liona Maria Carolynne Boyd, LLD, D.Mus, CM, O.Ont, is a Canadian classical guitarist, composer, songwriter and singer. Boyd was born in London, England on July 11, 1949, moved to Canada with her parents when she was eight years old and became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1975...
  
  
• Annabelle Chvostek
  Annabelle Chvostek
  Annabelle Chvostek is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Montreal. She is known for her rich singing voice, compelling lyrics and genre-spanning musicality, as well as her Juno-nominated work with harmony trio The Wailin' Jennys....
  
  
• Lynne Gangbar
• Davis Joachim
• Norbert Kraft
  Norbert Kraft
  Norbert Kraft is a Canadian guitarist, music teacher, producer and arranger.An international performer, Kraft has also recorded and produced many albums on the Naxos Records label...
  
  
• Gordon O'Brien
  Gordon O'Brien
  Gordon O'Brien is a Canadian guitarist.He recently won first prize at the prestigious John Williams International Competition in Darwin, Australia, as well as the $10,000 grand prize in the first Stotsenberg Guitar Competition in Los Angeles...
  
  
• Andy Krehm
• Carlos Lopes
  Carlos Lopes
  Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes, GCIH, is a former Portuguese long-distance athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1984 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles. He brought home Portugal's first ever Olympic gold medal along with a new Olympic record - 2:09.21.Born in Vildemoinhos, near Viseu, Portugal,...
  
  
• Rob Piltch
• James Lowrie
• Patrick Power
  Patrick Power
  Patrick Power was a Canadian politician and a member of the Canadian House of Commons for the riding of Halifax in Nova Scotia. He was born on March 17, 1815 at Kilmacthomas in County Waterford, Ireland...
  
  
• K. Brett Shea
• Christian Szczesniak
• Douglas Hibovski

External links

• http://www.guitarsocietyoftoronto.com/history2.html
• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001816
• http://www.brucewestinstruments.com/Kassner.htm