New weekly music showcase “Stages” brought home former U of T music student and current buzz girl Sarah Slean for an intimate solo show last Thursday at Hart House’s Arbor Room. A fixture on the local music scene for the past several years, the piano songstress is poised on the verge of a major breakthrough with the upcoming February release of her major-label debut album, The Nightbug Orchestra.

Like her contemporary Sarah Harmer, Slean has slowly and steadily built a solid career through word-of-mouth and constant touring, moving up from dragging her keyboard to coffeehouses to full-band cabaret extravaganzas at Lee’s Palace.

So it was a rare treat to see Slean play an intimate space like the Arbor Room. Packed with students and longtime supporters, the overly-warm cafe with its poor acoustics was overcome by Slean’s charming stage presence and crystalline voice.

Moving effortlessly between older numbers from her previous album and newer songs from the forthcoming release, Slean offset the often melancholy nature of her lyrics with her loopy, amusing between-song anecdotes. New tunes like “Everything By the Gallon” and a brand-new “unfinished” song lean heavily towards cabaret stylings—a modern spin on the sounds of old Paris, Broadway musicals, and a dash of Leonard Cohen.

They’re a far cry from the darker, more melodic older songs on Slean’s 1999 Blue Parade release, like “Playing Cards With Judas,” which elicited a huge cheer from the old fans in the audience.

In fact, Slean’s evolution from budding earnest singer-songwriter to consummate musician has been remarkable for anyone who has had the pleasure of watching her develop from a timid, almost hesitant performer to one who now plays as if she’s poured every inch of her heart and soul into the music. Watching Slean alone at the piano onstage, it seems almost as if she’s entirely lost in her own world, the only one in the room.

That said, perhaps the show’s casual, convivial vibe had relaxed Slean a little too much, as upbeat pop tune “Sweet Ones” yielded a few sour notes, and while her clarion vocals were strong throughout, the accompanying playing didn’t always match up.

But it’s actually nice to know that even the staggeringly talented aren’t perfect. Slean allowed that she was a little nervous being back at her old stomping grounds: “You see, in this school, in the music department, they’ll try to tell you that there are rules. And you have to say to them, ‘All right, then.'”

Anyone who can get an entire room of people to warble “Edelweiss,” as Slean did for her encore, has to be doing something right. Like Harmer, with any luck we’ll be seeing this Sarah at Convocation Hall in coming years, too.