Education & Classes in Markham

A government-certified educational institute, Ontario Conservatory of Music has fostered the musicians of tomorrow since 1939, when tomorrow had just been invented. Its teachers believe that playing music acts as a gateway—to building character, boosting confidence, and improving self-discipline. The school helps students of all ages explore those benefits through lessons in instruments ranging from drums and guitar to piano, voice, and violin. Band programs get even beginning students working together and performing in front of live audiences, giving them a space to hone their chops outside their basement, where mole people might hear them through the walls and steal their songs.

Gavin has been working and teaching behind the bar for almost 20 years, making drinks in 14 countries across 5 continents. His experiences inspired him to design and teach programs for home enthusiasts to create cocktails at their own parties, and to train students to secure professionally and financially rewarding positions in the hospitality industry almost immediately after graduation.

As BartenderOne’s CEO, Gavin and his team of professional mixologists and bar chefs helped design a curriculum based on interviews of bar, lounge, club, and banquet-facility owners. The certification courses still teach students to make a number of trendy and classic cocktails, but they emphasize the kinds of customer-service, cash-handling, and break-dancing skills that employers value. Instructors also train their small groups of students outside of a typical classroom environment, giving attendees experience behind an actual bar as opposed to a staged set. Additionally, BartenderOne gives its graduates a leg up by sending weekly emails with new job opportunities.

Founded with the goal of introducing pupils of all ages to the visual arts, Bronte Art Academy coaxes forth the inner Renoirs within all those who enter the studio during a host of hands-on lessons and camps. Under the capable direction of Paul Ross Sandilands, a local portrait artist who has taught at the Ontario College of Art & Design and served as a painting companion to Canadian artist Harold Town, budding masters explore their potential with a variety of artistic media, from watercolour to graphite. Paul also shares his knowledge, techniques, and passion for creative expression during in-studio sessions, where students can create their own take-home masterpieces portraying family, the ocean at sunset, or Roger Clemens as a 19th-century robber baron.

What began as an art-supply store in 1978 has since grown into a full art centre helmed by husband-and-wife team Lynnie and Richard Rosenthal. The inventive duo harnesses their extensive experiences in the art world to teach students at Lynrich Arts how to create their own masterpieces. Adults delve into watercolour, acrylic painting, and drawing projects; children try their hands at mixed media and cartooning, sketching out imagined superhero feats or adventures in accounting. In addition to creating business cards, brochures, and banners, the accommodating staff also hosts parties, ringing in birthdays, bridal showers, or other notable occasions with plenty of paintbrushes, canvases, ceramics, and inspirational work lining the walls.

E. Fulcher Group

If you recognize most of the faces on E. Fulcher Group’s website, it’s because the agency has had great success in landing its students jobs in its half a century of training actors and models. Due to its successful alumni and membership in elite talent-agent organizations, the company has been lauded with myriad accolades, including a recommendation from the International Modeling and Talent Association.

Now serving as both an agency and talent school, E. Fulcher Group hosts modelling, acting, and auditioning classes led by industry professionals who’ve had success booking top gigs. The intensive courses span up to six weeks in length, covering basic acting skills, how to be comfortable and natural on camera, and the statistically best cookies to ply casting crews with during auditions. While students are in the school’s training programs, they can audition for any of Fulcher Agency’s open-call casting sessions for commercials, films, music videos, and print ads.