About
As a toddler, Danielle's parents made her clap along with music on road trips until she had a reasonable sense of time.
At 6, she started taking piano lessons at the neighbor's house.
At 8, she landed her first (and only, for several years) public role: a munchkin in the Okaloosa Walton Community College production of Somewhere Over the Rainbow (about the same time she read All Creatures Great and Small, and decided to become a veterinarian).
At 9, she took her first (and only, for several years) voice lesson, where she saw a diagram of the larynx, and learned where you were supposed to breathe when singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
At 11, after her first summer of band camp on alto sax, she decided to drop out of band and take chorus, instead. For the next seven years.
Years 18-22 were an exciting and confusing time (for Danielle and most everyone else). She ended up with a Bachelor of Arts in (Classical) Vocal Performance, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, from the University of Florida.
At 22, she sang her first (and only, for several years) jazz standards at her best friend's wedding.
Years 22-32 have also been an exciting and confusing time (for Danielle and most everyone else). During this period, she sang in the chorus of the esteemed Houston Grand Opera, taught ballroom dance, messed around with software programming, worked as a veterinary technician, and started in with jazz.
Danielle studied with Joe LoCascio privately for several years, after taking his Jazz Theory course at Houston Community College. Her first live performance was with Conrad Kao, in December of 2005, in the lobby of an office building. Popular demand led rapidly to a steady gig at a gelato parlor in the Woodlands.
From that first gig to date, Danielle has been working with some of the most amazing musicians she can imagine. She most frequently performs with guitarists Ray Wilson, Erin Wright, and Clayton Dyess, and bassists David Craig, Lex Valk, and Thomas Helton. She appeared on KUHF's "Front Row" as part of a performance with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble featuring Tim Hagans. She and Erin Wright appeared on Deborah Duncan's Great Day Houston (video below). She performed new works by bassist/composer Thomas Helton as a part of his Houston Arts Alliance project, the Torture Chamber Ensemble.
Danielle is currently performing around Houston (calendar), expanding her repertoire, studying jazz improvisation with Carol Morgan at San Jacinto College, and working on a CD.