❧ Anthony D'Alessandro plays George Gershwin
- Jan 18
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Sunday, November 29, 2026 at 2:30 pm
Sunday, November 29, 2026 at 7:30 pm
$35 per ticket
The 54th and 55th concerts in the York Place Musical Salon.
❧ About the Concert
To mark the release of his third album this fall, JUNO-nominated jazz pianist Anthony D'Alessandro brings his West Coast tour to York Place Musical Salon for an evening devoted to the music of George Gershwin. Anthony will be joined by a very special guest... legendary Canadian bassist Steve Wallace, one of his former teachers in the University of Toronto jazz program.
Anthony arrives with remarkable momentum. His second album, City Lights, earned a 2026 JUNO Awards nomination for Jazz Album of the Year (Solo) — well-deserved recognition for an artist whose career is unmistakably on the rise. We are especially fortunate to welcome Anthony into our intimate salon setting, where his artistry can be heard at its most immediate and expressive.
Few composers have shaped the jazz repertoire more enduringly than Gershwin. A true bridge-builder of American music, he moved effortlessly between the concert hall and the Broadway stage, creating melodies and harmonies that continue to animate the jazz tradition nearly a century later.
Steve Wallace knows Anthony’s playing as well as anyone, and has written: “Anthony has a natural feeling for swing and groove, the blues vocabulary… a scintillating technique and a penchant for such feel-good pianists as Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly and Monty Alexander.” High praise indeed — from someone who has heard more than a few great pianists in his time.
Join us for world-class jazz in the Salon — up close, vibrant, and unforgettable.
❧ Get Tickets
Tickets will be available on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 9:00 am on this page.
Read more... About Tickets and the Waiting List
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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
Anthony D’Alessandro is a JUNO-nominated pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in Toronto. Hailed by the WholeNote Magazine as a pianist with a “natural feeling for swing and groove” and “scintillating technique”, and “one of the most impressive young jazz pianists today” by the Jersey Jazz Magazine, he has performed in many notable clubs, concert halls and jazz festivals around the world including the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Teatro Nescafé de las Artes in Santiago Chile, Birdland Jazz Club and Smalls Jazz Club in New York City, and Koerner Hall in Toronto.
He tours internationally as a bandleader including performances across Canada, the United States, South America, and Europe. He regularly performs alongside a “who’s who” of the industry’s top jazz musicians including international artists such as Benny Benack III, Joe Farnsworth, and Summer Camargo as well as fellow Canadians Caity Gyorgy, Pat LaBarbara, and Ernesto Cervini.
D'Alessandro’s most recent album City Lights was nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at the 2026 JUNO Awards. It has been called an album that “swings, breathes, and even smiles” by the Paris Move, and “capturing the immediacy and authenticity of a band in full flight” by V13 Media. His composition Tune for Monty was selected for CBC Music’s prestigious “Songs You Need to Hear” list in May 2024.
D’Alessandro has toured and recorded with three-time JUNO award winning vocalist Caity Gyorgy, having played piano on her most recent 2025 JUNO winning album “Hello, How Are You?”
D’Alessandro has spent time living and studying in New York City under master pianist/organist Mike LeDonne, and he holds an Honours Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Piano Performance from the University of Toronto, where he studied privately under David Braid, Mark Eisenman and Steve Wallace, among others.
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 14th and 15th appearances in the York Place Musical Salon (yeah, he's the house band!)