As Cabaret Exchange becomes NiteLife Exchange, cabaret remains a strong presence on the website. And here in September, as the seasons do their own “exchange,” trading summer for fall, a new cabaret season begins.

The big rooms that were silent, or running different kinds of programs during the summer, are starting their official seasons. And the autumnal Cabaret Convention (at Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center) in October, and the newer Broadway Cabaret Festival at The Town Hall, have become signs of fall as much as leaves changing colors.

(Well, to some of us music addicts.) There’s a lot to look forward to this fall, and I’ll be talking about it plenty in this column---and am pleased to also have been invited to talk about it on the radio. I’ll be joined by other critics, including Scott Siegel of that festival at The Town Hall and other music events like Broadway Unplugged. That radio chat will be Sunday, October 4th on David Kenney’s indispensible program of music that covers cabaret and standards and theatre songs: Everything Old Is New Again, on WBAI, 99.5 FM, every Sunday from 9pm to 11pm, and online simultaneously and on-demand by podcast, for two weeks after each show at www.archives.wbai.org – I’m a longtime listener. (This week’s guest is iridium Jazz Club regular Laurie Krauz, who also brings her Carole King Tapestry Rewoven show to BB King’s in Times Square on October 29.)

The end of summer these past two years in CabaretLand, has been marked by another event: the grand finale of an eight-week-long talent contest, MetroStar, at the Metropolitan Room. This year’s winner is Liz Lark Brown, with runners-up Danielle Grabianowski (second place) and Carole Bufford (third). It was an interesting process to watch, with dozens of initial contestants being brought to short list of fewer and fewer, from 18, 'til just three were left standing. I attended the last five of the eight sessions, and was pleased to be a guest judge again this year, in the next-to-last week. The contestants, and it seems the audience, too, learned a lot about what makes cabaret different than other kinds of musical performance.

Winner Liz (“Miss Brown to You,” to invoke a song title of an old jazz song I like) Brown wins a major engagement at the venue, all expenses paid. That includes professional direction, musical director, publicity, etc., and a CD recording. The runners-up take turns being her opening act. This will be later on in the season, giving her time to choose material and to stop jumping up and down with joy. Meanwhile, first runner-up Danielle is wasting no time in capitalizing on her showing, and is showing up for her own solo shows at the same club, under more traditional set-ups where she has to get it all done herself with a little help from her friends, as the Beatles used to say. Her first night is October 30, the night before Halloween, and returning on November 4. I thought I’d profile each of the three top-placing ladies. Since Danielle has a show coming up, let’s feature her this week, with something about how the experience of the talent contest was for her---her in her own words:

"I loved everything about the MetroStar Talent Challenge! I loved being introduced so hilariously each week by Lennie Watts, accompanied so expertly by Nate Buccieri, loved that marvelous audience and I loved meeting Julie Wilson!!! The whole cabaret community is so warm and welcoming; I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it. I am usually not a competitive person, but for MetroStar, something came over me and I really wanted to win, so when they called my name a little earlier than I had hoped, my heart sank for about 3 seconds and then I found it impossible to be disappointed! It was all such a great gift and it gave me that little extra push to put my own show together, which I'm thrilled about!"

Doing well in singing contests is not a first for Danielle. She placed first in last year’s “1930s Idol” competition run by Big Night Out, the open mic series, in its quest to find someone who personified the look and sound of a bygone era. She does have that retro thing down, loving music of long-ago decades, which served her well in both contests. Veteran critic David Finkle, writing in The Huffington Post, remarked that she is "one of those performers who can remind a listener of many predecessors, yet instantly seems newly-minted and already, defiantly resists being fitted into anyone else's mold."

Danielle was born in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY, and moved to Florida's Tampa Bay Area when she was 13. Her bio states that “after unsuccessfully trying out for various sports teams and academic clubs, she was finally cast in her high school drama club's production of Grease and soon decided that a career in the performing arts would be the most logical way to go. In 2006, she appeared in Hotter Than a Pregnant Cow: The Music of William Finn at Rose's Turn, and has performed with various theatre companies around the country, including the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and Bakerloo Theatre Project, as well

as in various readings and workshops of new musicals and plays in New York City.” You can hear her sing four songs, including those she did at MetroStar, at http://www.daniellegrabianowski.com/audio.html Miss Grabianowski is as easy to like as her last name is difficult to pronounce or spell. She has a captivating sound, a disarming manner, a sparkle in her eyes and is a big spark of talent that is sure to spark interest. With flair and fun, Danielle is retro, and a mix of sassy, sly and sweet, a recipe mixed together to result in a combo that is delicious dynamite.