Testimonials

Dan Gillies is a talented musician and producer who is able to execute a creative vision while maintaining the highest level of professional standards. He is truly a champion for the arts in our region and is dedicated to supporting and cultivating the next generation of musicians. Dan is a strong ambassador for the strength and vibrancy of the Wood Buffalo arts community.

Dan Gillies is a rare breed who is mak­ing a liv­ing through his music…IN FORT MCMURRAY! He has the skills and con­nec­tions to go almost any­where and be suc­cess­ful, but he has cho­sen to put down roots in Wood Buf­falo and raise his fam­ily here. In many ways, he is break­ing new ground, craft­ing a viable liv­ing as an artist effec­tively mix­ing song­writ­ing, per­form­ing and teach­ing. In my ideal future for Fort McMur­ray, I see artists of all dis­ci­plines fol­low­ing in Dan’s pro­gres­sive and coura­geous foot­steps. A tal­ented musi­cian, a con­sum­mate pro­fes­sional, and a great human being, Daniel Gillies is a class act who makes me feel incred­i­bly opti­mistic about our artis­tic future as a com­mu­nity and region.

Daniel Gillies is an amaz­ing local musi­cian, who goes above and beyond for his clients. Daniel’s work ethic and pro­fes­sion­al­ism make him very easy to work with. Fol­low­ing his per­for­mance at a fundrais­ing event, I was inun­dated with calls from the com­mu­nity, ask­ing how they could get in touch with him, as some­one with his musi­cal tal­ent is a rarity.

I went to a wine and cheese event put on by a local hotel — and fell in love with the incred­i­ble ambi­ence cre­ated by a gui­tar player — Daniel — who played beau­ti­ful back­ground music the entire evening. When an oppor­tu­nity came up through my work to plan an annual for­mal din­ner on behalf of our Board, I imme­di­ately thought of Daniel and his music. Daniel was very pro­fes­sional through­out the entire evening — in fact rarely took a break! — and through his bril­liant gui­tar play­ing skill cre­ated this same won­der­ful ambi­ence for the Board’s guests. Every­one com­mented on how much they enjoyed the evening largely due to the fab­u­lous back­ground music. (As an event plan­ner, Daniel really made me look great!) Daniel has now played on two sep­a­rate occa­sions for us — each time with huge suc­cess — and I plan to con­tinue uti­liz­ing his “magic” to help make events mem­o­rable and remarkable.