Ottawa’s own singer/songwriter Danielle Allard held her album release party for her third album Passing Notes at Collab Space in Ottawa on Saturday, May 19/18 with her fans, friends and supporters.

A woman of many talents. Danielle, excels at singing and songwriting, is also teacher at Ottawa’s Algonquin College and works with local artists though social media marketing and initiatives. As if that wasn’t enough, she donates her time to local charities and has performed over 30 shows per year in support of them.  Anyone looking for a role model need look no further.

Passing Notes, the follow up album to Chameleon, was the highly anticipated next project in her body of work and I’m giving it high reviews. Her performance, vocals, songwriting and especially her piano playing was sheer perfection tonight.  She had my attention, and from looking around at the audience, their’s too.

Over 95 people from Ottawa contributed to the crowdfunding campaign to make this album possible, many who were in attendance taking in this wonderful evening. It truly was a fun and exciting night for everyone.

Opening first for Danielle was the very talented Crystalena who had the task of kicking the night all off. Crystalena is an alternative folk/rock singer/songwriter from Ottawa who has been a performing musician for 6 years and is no stranger to the stage.  Her smooth and confident voice ripples with warmth throughout each song and was a pleasure to listen to.

Next up was Michael Lifshitz. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Michael brought his comedy to the stage tonight enlightening people as to what people with disabilities are able to do.  My favorite was the story of the person in a wheelchair in the grocery store and a guy approaches and say to him, “Hey, you’re in a wheelchair” and then proceeded to ask if he knew his friend who was also in a wheelchair.  The guy wanted to reply with “Hey do know my friend….he’s also an idiot”. These weren’t his exact words but you get the premise of the story.

Finally, and before Danielle took the stage, was Kyle Ivan,. A refreshing singer-songwriter in the Ottawa music scene. Ivan is often compared to Shawn Mendes with his pop-infused song melodies and performance certainly is someone to watch out for.  A very skilled guitar player and singer only adding to the greatness of this event.

Overall a wonderful event, an incredible amount of talent and a night that I will remember for a while.

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