ANTHONY D’ALESSANDRO is a 21-year-old pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in Toronto. His love of Oscar Peterson’s sense of swing, combined with his passion for the blues, gospel, and traditional jazz, have shaped his distinctively joyful and captivating style of playing. Anthony has performed in many of Ontario’s finest venues and festivals including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Barrie Jazz and Blues Festival, the Jazz Sudbury Festival, the Festival of the Sound, the 2015 Toronto Pan-Am Games, and most of Toronto’s leading clubs and lounges.
D’Alessandro’s music has also taken him throughout the United States, headlining performances at the International Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa and the Snowbirds Extravaganza Festival in Lakeland, Florida. He has also shared stages with Canadian jazz greats including Steve Wallace, Chase Sanborn, Jackie Richardson, Steve McDade, Morgan Childs, John Sumner, Billy Newton-Davis, and Drew Jurecka.
Anthony recently received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Jazz Piano Performance from the University of Toronto where he studied under Canadian jazz luminaries Steve Wallace, David Braid, Dave Young, Mark Eisenman, David Restivo, and Mike Murley. He is a four-time recipient of the Noreen & Phil Nimmons Scholarship in Jazz Performance, the University of Toronto President’s Entrance Scholarship, the University of Toronto National Book Award, and was a finalist for JAZZ.FM91’s Peter Appleyard Scholarship in 2016. He recently received a grant from the University of Toronto to fund a trip to Casalmaggiore, Italy where he will be studying composition under composer David Braid at the 2019 Casalmaggiore International Music Festival.
This evening’s stellar ANTHONY D’ALESSANDRO TRIO also features EVAN GRATHAM on bass and NICK DONOVAN on drums, entertaining in the up-close-and-personal ambience of The Home Smith Bar.