"All In the Family" Music Hour
- JK
- May 24
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Friday, August 28, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 2:00 pm
$35 per ticket
The 49th and 50th concerts in the York Place Musical Salon.
About the Event
“All in the Family” features the father/daughter duo of guitarist Larry Ayre and mezzo-soprano Dinah Ayre accompanied by their good friend Steve Wallace on double bass. This promises to be a wide ranging and eclectic concert showcasing the many and varied talents of these accomplished musicians.
The program will include a diverse assortment of pieces - from the classical repertoire (Bach, Gounod, Sor) to Brazilian ballads and bossa novas to standards from the Great American Songbook. And to complete the family unit, the group will perform several modern swing songs written by the matriarch of the family, Marki Nickerson.
Whatever your taste in music, this concert has something for everyone!
Tickets will be available on Monday, June 28, 2026 at 9:00 am on this page.
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Info & FAQ: About Tickets and the Waiting List
We gratefully acknowledge a generous donation from an anonymous patron who has sponsored the York Place Musical Salon since 2024. This support helps further our goal of presenting performances of the highest caliber. Thank you.
About the Musicians
Born into a musical family, mezzo-soprano Dinah Ayre has always had a passion for storytelling through song. Dinah has completed a Music Performance Diploma and Artists Diploma at Vancouver Academy of Music, studying with soprano Robyn Driedger-Klassen and previously with tenor David Meek. She has sung alto in the Vancouver Chamber Choir since the 2017/18 season and also keeps busy singing with a host of other local ensembles, including Belle Voci Chamber Choir & Cathedral Singers, the UBC Early Music Ensemble, as well as for various churches. Dinah has also performed as a soloist with many of these ensembles, and has recently had the pleasure of singing as alto soloist for performances of Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Magnificat, and Mozart’s Requiem.
Dinah has a special interest in new music and working with local composers. Some of her favourite projects have included the Vancouver Opera New Works Project, an intensive program designed to create brand-new opera scenes in just two weeks, and premiering the role of ‘Mrs. Lundblad’ in the one-act opera, The Woman Who Borrowed Memories, at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Dinah was also proud to be part of the audience-selected winning team of Vancouver’s first Art SongSLAM in 2020.
As a personal project, Dinah enjoys performing and recording art songs, and hopes to bring this underappreciated art form more into the spotlight in Vancouver. When she’s not singing, you can find Dinah working at Cheesecake Etc., one of Vancouver’s longest-running dessert restaurants.
Larry Ayre is well known in the Comox Valley both as a teacher and a musician. Since moving to the Comox Valley in 1990 he has been busy teaching guitar, bass and harmonica students of all ages in his private studio. He also teaches various music courses for adults through the City of Courtenay Recreation program.
Larry received his formal training in music at York University in Toronto, where he attended the Jazz program in the 1970’s. His "post graduate" education was in 'The School of the Road.' He has travelled
the country extensively and played many gigs in Quebec, Ontario, all the western provinces and the Yukon.
In the 1990’s Larry became seriously interested in classical music, studying with members of the guitar faculty of the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Since then he’s played classical guitar at many wedding ceremonies, receptions and special events. Over the years he has developed a great appreciation for Brazilian and South American music. He plays many bossa nova tunes as well as traditional classical guitar pieces by composers such as J.S. Bach, Francisco Tarrega, Hector Villa-Lobos and Antonio Lauro. This is Larry's third appearance in the York Place Muscial Salon.
Steve Wallace is one of Canada’s foremost jazz bassists. He was born in Toronto in 1956. Most of his career took place there and internationally, playing clubs, touring and recording with such American greats as Zoot Sims, Ray Bryant, Scott Hamilton, Rosemary Clooney, Woody Herman and many more, as well as with such Canadian giants as Fraser MacPherson, Rob McConnell, Oscar Peterson, Phil Nimmons, Ed Bickert, Mike Murley and many others. He moved to Courtenay in July 2021 where he now lives with his long-suffering wife Anna. These concerts mark Steve's twelfth and thirteenth appearances in the York Place Musical Salon.