About Danny

 

MY PROCESS

My favourite way to create is to sit at a piano and just play, with sounds, with ideas, the feelings of notes moving from one to another. Melodies reveal themselves, textures of clustered sounds are formed. Rhythms appear, harmonies meander. It’s an experience of discovery, always changing. All of this is a process of ‘thinking in sound’. And this results in emotional encounters with the notes – which one works, which one does not – a mysterious process.

When I sit at the keys I become charged. Playing the piano opens up the possibility of sound being a healing experience for me, and others. And for that I am grateful.

HOW DID IT BEGIN?

At the age of 6, my Grandma Ouellette gave me a choice of playing piano or accordion. I chose the piano because I was about 4’ tall and did not have the strength to lift an accordion! I had a drive to play piano. We did not even own a piano until I was around 10 years old. I used to practice at Mrs Bakewells, a neighbour across the street. I was also allowed to practice in the church basement, because my uncle was the priest !

 
 

Biography

EDUCATION

  • Faculty of Education: Master of Education, 1995. University of Manitoba

  • School of Music: Bachelor of Music (Composition), 1978 (study with Robert Turner). University of Manitoba

AWARDS

  • FACTOR Artist Development Grant August/21

  • Manitoba Film and Music Recording Grant - Level 1 Commercial Release Sept/20

  • Inducted into the Rainbow Stage Wall of Fame, 2014

  • Manitoba Arts Council: Travel/Professional Development Grant: Film and Theatre Composing mentoring in Toronto with John Gzowski, Cathy Nosaty, and Mark Korven

  • Winnipeg Arts Council: Individual Artist Grant. First draft of a musical for Young Audiences

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Creative Manitoba and Manitoba Music: The Art of Managing Your Career (13 week course with Heather Bishop); Web Design; Digital Marketing; January Music Meetings; Branding; Merging Mindsets - Digital Sound Art, and Digital Collaboration

  • Others: ECamm - 3 day Live Streaming Webinairs; On Screen Manitoba - CAVCO ID

MEMBERSHIPS

  • Music Professionals of Manitoba (CFM-AFM) Lifetime Member

  • On Screen Manitoba, Screen Composers Guild of Canada

  • Creative Manitoba, Manitoba Music

  • SOCAN, MROC, CMRRA, Sound Exchange

  • CAVCO Number

  • Registered Manitoba Business: LDC PRODUCTIONS

 

 

Performer

  • Danny has usually performed a couple times a month at the Fort Garry Hotel for the past 18 years

  • Corporate gigs (solo, duo, trio, quartet): Manitoba Lotteries, Plan It Management, The Bowering Group

  • CKY TV - Wish Upon a Star Variety Program

  • Theatre: Rainbow Stage: Served as combinations of rehearsal pianist, pit orchestra and Music Director, 1993-2020; Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre; Winnipeg Jewish Theatre; Hollow Mug Dinner Theatre (International Inn) 1981, 1987-1991

  • Music Director: Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (The World Goes Round, Community Play- ‘lawyers show’ (2022), Steven Schipper Retirement Presentation, It’s a Wonderful Life: a Radio Play (2009/2018), 50th Anniversary Homecoming Evening (2009), The Tempest, La Cage Aux Folles (Community Play - ‘lawyers’ show’); Rainbow Stage (Breaking Up is Hard to Do); Dry Cold (Nine, Company); STRIKE! (2009); Manitoba Theatre for Young People (James and the Giant Peach)

  • Music Ministry: Winnipeg Diocesan Choir, St John Brebeuf, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernadette

Danny as music director and performer at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

Danny as music director and performer at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

 

Theatre/Sound Design

  • Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre: It’s a Wonderful Life: a Radio Play (2009, 2018); A Christmas Carol (2005, 2017); Gone with the Wind (World Premiere); The Tempest; Romeo and Juliet; The Shunning; Pride and Prejudice; Rope’s End, Over the Tavern; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MTC Community Play); Retreat from Moscow;  Trying  

  • Prairie Theatre Exchange: How the Heavens Go, The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble, Best Brothers, Having Hope at Home

  • Winnipeg Jewish Theatre: Lenin’s Embalmers , Death of a Salesman, Lebensraum, Via Dolorosa, Einstein’s Gift, Tales of the Allergist’s Wife, Year of the Flood

  • Manitoba Theatre for Young People: Jungle Book, New Canadian Kid, Peter Pan, Night Light;

Film/Television

  • The Cornish Library (Blue Sky Productions) 2015; Time of Your Life (Julian Mitchell) 2013; The Lost Dreams of Narcissus and Echo (Hersh Seth); Winnipeg Firefighters Museum; Respect in the Work Place (Riverview Health Centre); Corporate Videos for Impact Video and Malanka  Productions

Other

  • Queen Elizabeth II - Forks Visit: Composed Finale - Spirit of the Rivers (2002); This Song is for the Birds (Groundswell); Celebrate Like a Child (Pan AM Games Multi school Concert); Magister Canantes Scaticum (University Singers)