Patty Lai started learning piano at 5 years old in Hong Kong and became the accompanist at church choirs and music festivals at 13 years old. Once she completed the grade 8 piano examination of The Royal Schools of Music at the age of 16, she was hired as a part-time piano teacher at Aerophone piano company in Hong Kong.   

In 1982, Patty immigrated to Toronto, Canada and continued to be active in community choirs as an accompanist, soloist or conductor. She studied computer programming and business administration for her post-secondary educations. She worked in various commercial corporations in Hong Kong and Toronto, specialized in adult business training and later on accounting and taxation. However, she never ceased teaching piano and taking vocal lessons in a part-time basis.  

Her deep passion to music never ended. In the beginning of 2002, Patty decided to make a change in her life and became a full time piano teacher at Klavier Music Studio in Toronto.  This change proved to be very successful by her excellent student’s tracking records at the Royal Conservatory of Music examinations as well as music festivals around Metropolitan Toronto.

She studied piano with Jimmy Chan in Toronto, San-Qing Lu-Bennaman and David Chapman in Maryland, USA. She was professionally trained under the Royal Conservatory of Music curriculum and received her ARCT Piano Teacher’s Diploma with good standings.