Keyfest for Kids | Musical Foundations
Enriched Program
Music Lessons for Advanced Students
Using a blend of highly focused, intense private sessions with one of our Master Coaches along with group learning opportunities, our Enriched program is geared towards students with the penchant for a career in music or who want to learn advanced musical skills.
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Become a Professional Musician
Music Immersion for Our Future Artists and Leaders
Music is a language unlike any other, for its tendency to push our minds further than other disciplines. Accomplished musicians tend to be more creative, have better temporal and spatial reasoning, enhanced memory, and better ‘EQ’, also known as emotional intelligence.
For students and parents who understand this and want to experience the maximum benefits that music has to offer, while achieving a high level of proficiency, Merriam’s Enriched Program delivers a totally unique curriculum that can’t be found at any other pre-college school. In fact, ‘Google it” and you’ll quickly realize that there’s no such thing as an advanced piano program anywhere else.
Good Fit Guarantee
Love Your First Piano Lesson, or It’s Free
Your first lesson with a new tutor is protected by Merriam’s Good Fit Guarantee. If you’re not satisfied with your lesson, you don’t pay. No questions asked.
Classical Piano or Vocal
Both piano and vocal students can audition for the Enriched program, where they’ll connect with advanced teachers, a unique curriculum, specialized exams to track progress, and exclusive performance opportunities only open to Enriched students.
Specialized Teachers
With less than 10 Specialty and Master-Class level coaches at Merriam, we ensure our Enriched Program educators are part of an elite, exclusive group with the passion, talent and wisdom to lead our young students to the forefront of advanced music.
Highly Immersive
Whether they’re 8 or 18 years old, music is a major part of our enriched student’s lives. Along with regular private lessons, students participate in exclusive master-classes, clinics, social events, and performances, which often brings students to a Merriam campus several times each week.
Socialization & Friendships
Throughout the program, students have the opportunity to make new friends, form social bonds, and connect with other, like-minded individuals. Acceptance into the program is a source of pride, and one that carries into the classroom, onto the stage, and out into the world.
Premium Instruments
We believe that the best instruments inspire greatness. That’s why advanced music lessons and performances happen on our top level instruments.
RCM & MSM Exams
For over 30 years, we’ve been training students for RCM exams. In fact, our enriched teachers have prepared over 1,000 students for successful examinations.
No Long-term Contract
Our 30 day cancellation policy means that when the time is right to move on, you’re never locked into long-term contracts or non-refundable pre-payments.
Enriched Gala
As one of Merriam’s premiere events of the year, the Enriched Gala provides enriched students with the chance to show off their hard work in a stylish and inspiring setting.
Our Most Celebrated Teachers
Stay Inspired with A Great Teacher
A lifetime of performing, educating, and learning. A deep passion for student success. And a school they call home. As parents, we search high and low for those rare individuals who have the capacity to help develop our sons and daughters into their future selves – and we’re incredibly fortunate to count these special few as colleagues and mentors.
Your children will be inspired every lesson to work harder, to challenge themselves, and to expand their minds in a way that most students don’t get until university. They’ll form deep connections with their friends in the program, and they’ll take on a positive, confident sense of self that will last a lifetime.
Dedicated Customer Support Staff
Exceptional Customer Service
Our customer service team has received an astounding 97% satisfaction rating over the last 5 years from our student body, and we’ll deliver the same experience for you and your family. Our dedicated team get to know you and your family, constantly tracking and recommending adjustments to your program, checking in to ensure that your concerns are addressed, and being available 7 days a week to take a phone call or answer your email.
This is no outsourced call centre; they know the teachers, the administrators, and most importantly, they know you. Once you’ve experienced it, you’ll never want another music school again.
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Piano Lessons
- Instrument: Piano
- Length: 60 Minutes +
- Age: 6+
- RCM Exam Compatible: Yes
- Locations: Oakville
- Start Date: Based on openings / availability
- Term: 40 Lessons/Year + Masterclass
Advanced Piano Lessons
Classical Piano
An immersive multi-year program that takes promising young piano students that show exceptional talent, and develops all aspects of their skillset to a 1st-year university level.
All advanced music lessons are in-person (with appropriate safety protocols in place) and involve a combination of private instruction, group instruction, performance, examination, and social activity. Fun, innovative, and proven musical enrichment for your children.
Advanced Singing Lessons
Classical Vocal
For aspiring vocalists seeking entry into classical/opera or musical theatre programs at a college or university level, the Enriched Vocal program is the ideal ramp. Hyper-focus on proper technique and instrument development, vocal health, and a broad repertoire exposure will place our students miles ahead of other students auditioning for these coveted under-graduate programs.
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Vocal Lessons
- Instrument: Piano
- Length: 60 Minutes +
- Age: 6+
- RCM Exam Compatible: Yes
- Locations: Oakville
- Start Date: Based on openings / availability
- Term: 40 Lessons/Year + Masterclass
Best Piano Lessons in Toronto
What Makes Merriam Work?
Our enriched students consistently out-perform their peers in auditions and festivals – and perhaps most meaningfully, nearly all link their success later in life with their time at the program.
What are the aspects of the program that deliver this level of consistent impact? It sounds obvious, but the reason is that we’re actually a school.
Meaning that every aspect of the student experience is planned, managed, tracked, and predictable. Which requires that every class, teacher, assignment, exam, and experience is managed by department leaders and an administration team committed to the success of the program.
It means that every student has equal access to inspiring instruments and equipment. It means that they have performance experiences that can’t be replicated in a living room, and connections with established professionals that only true insiders can arrange.
It means we’re a centre of learning, somewhere students look forward to going to, somewhere to grow, to meet friends, to take on new challenges.
In other words, we’re actually a school.
A Piano School Beyond the Notes
Harmony, music theory, or technique shouldn’t be bad words. In fact, by understanding the building blocks of music while learning how to play, you’ll more deeply understand the music and actually accelerate how quickly you can learn your next songs.
We began in 1988 by asking a few simple but powerful questions – can starter musicians be taught complex musical concepts within the first few years of their journey? After all, when people learn new languages, they don’t begin by reciting super complex passages…they start simple like learning basic chords…and by understanding those basics. And in no time, they’re actually speaking the language.
Music works exactly the same way. When you build a musical experience with those same fundamental building blocks like understanding chord progressions, analyzing song structure, and knowing how to solo over a specific scale, you ‘get’ the songs you learn at such a deep level that you’ll never forget them, and actually gain the ability to recreate other songs that sound the same.
If you’ve wanted a different dimension in your piano playing, or just want to start the right way, our proven curriculum is ready to take you there.
The Science of Musical Excellence
Merriam School of Music has been involved in multiple university studies, many asking the same question: how to increase engagement, reduce obstacles to rapid learning, and why Merriam succeeds where others have failed.
It starts by infusing the 9 areas of musical literacy into every class, to ensure that the learning is permanent and comprehensive.
Then, add Merriam’s testing system – acknowledged as the most comprehensive in community music today – which meticulously measures development in rhythm, ear training, harmony, technique, repertoire, composition, fingerstyle, arpeggios, and more.
Sprinkle in up to 15 times every year to share and hone your work in front of real audiences, including constructive feedback after every performance.
And finally, oversight by a department leader who is there to ensure student and program success – something normally only found at colleges and universities.
It all adds up to a formula that has created smiles and success for over 30 years. And what we call ‘The Science of Musical Excellence.’
The Merriam Curriculum
A Complete Music Education
Students at Merriam don’t just learn differently. Their entire experience is broader and more engaging. They learn creativity and free expression while building confidence, self-esteem, and friendships. It all begins in the classroom, but where it takes them, goes far beyond.
"Our mission and purpose is to help foster and inspire creative, connected, and well-rounded lives with the power of music."
- Alan Merriam, President of Merriam Music
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