About

Discover the Music Within!

Debut Piano Studio is a successful piano school, founded in 2004 in Toronto by Sergei Pavlov, and traditionally serving the Eastern GTA and Scarborough, Markham, North York with in-home or in-studio piano lessons. It is now offering private in-studio piano lessons to students in Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and Oshawa (Durham Region), via its Whitby piano studio, equipped with a superb Yamaha C5 concert-series grand piano. The Toronto piano lessons are offered only online or in your home.

Sergei's piano lessons help the students to achieve their individual goal in music education, and thoroughly prepare them for RCM examinations, piano competitions and music festivals. Sergei Pavlov is a virtuoso pianist, whose talent has been awarded the First Prize in the 1995 Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition, which he adjudicated the following year. He graduated from the renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with a degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy.

Sergei Pavlov is arguably one of the best qualified piano teachers you can find in your area. Additionally:

  • Sergei is a result-driven, initiative-encouraging piano teacher
  • He expects full commitment and attention from the student
  • The lessons are focused, yet fun and friendly
  • Both technical apects and artistic interpretation are developed and emphasized
  • Sergei's students are fortunate to be learning from his award-winning, virtuosic piano technique

Sergei has continuously led his students to great personal advancement in piano, and to proud results in RCM examinations, piano competitions and music festivals at national and international level, including the Canadian Music Competition. A number of his students are pursuing the goal of becoming professional pianists themselves.

Sergei is an avid participant in professional workshops, seminars and online forums, thus continuously researching and enhancing his knowledge base and teaching approach.

Piano Lessons

Discover the Music Within!

Sergei Pavlov has a proven record of successful piano lessons, leading to top results in RCM piano examinations, piano competitions and music festivals across GTA, the province and at national level, where his students usually scoop up the top prizes. Some of his students went further, to winning prizes and scholarships abroad, or pursuing the piano performance as a career. With such a good and experienced piano teacher like Sergei, your child will be in excellent hands on the path to complex, technical and artistic blossoming.

Over the years, Sergei Pavlov has been a member of a number of professional organizations for music teachers in Ontario. He is a brilliant piano performer, and by also combining the outstanding, long-established tradition of the classical music education in Moscow, with research and novelty, Sergei sums up unparalleled depths of knowledge, and broad horizons, which bring very high professional standards in his lessons.

Sergei's piano lessons in Toronto and Durham Region focus on the complex aspects of a music score, allowing the student freedom in giving the piece an individual character. Each piece has a relatable story, and Sergei helps the student to uncover their own story and vision.

Increasing neuroscientific research demonstrates the positive effects of musical training on brain development. Paraphrasing Frontieres in Neuroscience on How musical training in children affects cognitive development, music lessons are requiring attention, memorization, advanced motor skills and coordination, and the ability to progressively master a technical skill. Such complex mental processes establish new neural paths in the brain, also known as brain plasticity. This enhancement of functional skills, plus self-control and focused attention, translate in turn into better results in other academic subjects, and eventually in higher scores of general IQ. Various methods of testing developed during research suggest that non-verbal reasoning skills are better developed in children with musical training. However, the role of the child's motivation and attention is profound in all learning and should not be underestimated. And the social environment and the particular teacher involved in the music instruction of the child may be of equally high importance.

Snapshot: Legacy Links

Rates

How much are you expecting to pay for piano lessons in Toronto / Eastern GTA? The answer depends on the qualifications of the piano teacher, their piano performance level, and the location of the lessons. If the teacher has Bachelor's music degree which is not piano-related, for example voice, expect to pay less than for a piano teacher with a Bachelor's degree in piano performance & piano pedagogy. If the teacher has a Master's in piano, the expected rate is between $60 and $90 per hour. If on top of the degree the teacher is a concert pianist awarded in competitions, then the cost raises significantly, up to $200 or more per hour.
Sergei Pavlov has a Master's degree in piano, has been a concert pianist on two continents, and he won the First Prize in the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition and has two levels of piano lessons rates.
Piano lessons rates for Durham Region, in the studio of the piano teacher:

  • $40.00 for 30-minute piano lessons
  • $55.00 for 45-minute piano lessons
  • $65.00 for 60-minute piano lessons
Piano lessons rates for Toronto, in your home:
  • $45.00 for 30-minute piano lessons
  • $60.00 for 45-minute piano lessons
  • $70.00 for 60-minute piano lessons

Piano Studio Policies

  • An inquiring student will be interviewed by the piano teacher free of charge
  • Payments for piano lessons are made at the beginning of each month
  • In the event of piano lesson cancellation, advanced notification is required
  • The missed lesson will be rescheduled according to the availability of the teacher
  • One cancellation free of charge is allowed per trimester.
  • The student would be expected to practice at home on an acoustic piano.
  • Students are expected to participate in Debut Piano Studio's bi-annual recitals
  • At the year-end recital, students receive medals and trophies for their work.

Piano recitals are enjoyable and motivating events and offer the additional experience of performing in public, thus increasing the self-confidence in preparation for music festivals and RCM examinations. At the year-end recital, students receive medals and trophies for their work. For convenience, books, music scores and manuals can be purchased by the piano teacher. Payment is due upon receipt.

The piano teacher will suggest the length of the piano lesson based on the student's level and abilities, from 30 - 45 min for beginners to 60 min for the intermediate and advanced. Daily piano practice is the foundation of rapid advancement. Practice time is based on individual piano education goals and skill level.

Piano Teacher

Career Highlights

Sergei Pavlov has graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, arguably one of the finest schools of music in the world. He holds a Master's Degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy, and has performed in concerts in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, United States and Canada. Sergei Pavlov's piano performances in North America's concert halls include the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. In 1992, upon his arrival to Canada, Sergei was the subject of a short documentary by CBC's news anchor Jeannie Lee, which was aired on CBC.

In 1995, Sergei Pavlov won the First Prize at the Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition in the USA. The competition's organizers invited him to be part of the jury in the following year.

In 2004, his decades-long private piano teaching practice culminated in founding of the Debut Piano Studio, which has become an outstanding piano school for talented students in the GTA, initially serving Scarborough, Markham, North York, Richmond Hill. Currently, students from the eastern part of the GTA are now being welcome at the Whitby location of the piano school, which Sergei Pavlov branded as Classical Piano Lessons in Ajax and Whitby. The Whitby piano studio is equipped with a Yamaha Grand C5 professional series, a concert-level grand piano.
The East of Toronto is still being served, solely via piano lessons in the home of the student. For rates visit the Rates page.
Almost 300 performances have been uploaded to Debut Piano Studio's YouTube main channel, to date, totalling almost 600,000 views. Enjoy any of them on YouTube.

Testimonials

  • "Lightning-fast arpeggios combined with dazzling repeated octave passages kept the audience enthralled. But always there was a great sense of drama, of building to crashing climaxes in keeping with the intensity of Pavlov's expressive range, and great breadth of emotion... Fiery, exciting and thrilling to watch, Pavlov brought the audience to its feet..." (Barbara Scott, The Examiner)
  • "Sergei Pavlov, another Russian wizard, and winner of the 1995 Bartok-Kabalevsky piano competition... demonstrated in works such as Liszt's La Campanella the sort of virtuosity that the best Russian-trained pianists are famed for; and in a Chopin waltz, one of several encores, he managed a lovely expressive winsomeness." (Jan Narveson, UW Gazette)
  • "A pianist of immense talent... achieved a musical zenith" (Bruce Stapley, Weekender)
  • "Sergei has become known to audiences around the world for the warmth and beauty of his playing and his technical ability. While a brilliant virtuoso, his real forte is cleverly revealing a touching core of musical emotions, from melancholy to deep passion, to shimmering happiness and ecstasy." (Alexander Rosenblatt, pianist and composer)

Videos

In over two decades of piano lessons offered by Debut Piano Studio to students across the Greater Toronto Area, numerous generations of talented kids have joined Sergei Pavlov's piano teaching practice as students, where they further blossomed musically and artistically. Their achievements have made the students, their families, and their teacher immensely proud. Some of their performances in studio or at public events have been captured in video recordings, which their teacher has been uploading to YouTube for some years, to a total, to date, of about 400 videos posted on two channels, and almost 800,000 views.
Enjoy award winning videos of Debut Piano Studio on Youtube!

Selected Videos

Contact

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Location of piano studio at 16 Hallmark St, Whitby, L1P 0K2
Since March 2021, Sergei Pavlov has been teaching piano lessons to Durham Region-based students in his new home-based piano school, at his current home address in Whitby, L1P 0K2, Durham Region, Ontario. The students from Toronto can request lessons only at their home. For rates, please visite the Lessons Rates page.
This is a newly built home, in a brand-new subdivision built by Tiffany Park Homes in the last two years. Please download the latest maps on your GPS device, to ensure our brand-new address is on the map. Our new address is on the N-E corner of Dundas x Highway 412, and it is accessible via Des Newmann Boulevard if you come on Dundas from the West, and via Swordfish Drive if you come on Dundas from the East.

Our home piano teaching studio is equipped with a professional Yamaha C5 Series grand piano, full size, concert-level with a beautiful sound. It is lovingly maintained and tuned, to ensure the best teaching experience and environment for both student and piano teacher. It is a great instrument that has inspired generations of students of Sergei Pavlov.

Sergei Pavlov Piano School in Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa and Pickering: Yamaha Grand Series C5

For all inquiries, please call
647-222-8761
or send email to