About Patrica Cano

Patricia Cano is an award-winning Peruvian-Canadian singer-songwriter and actor. Originally from Sudbury, ON, Patricia is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

In 2001, Tomson Highway - Canada's premier Cree playwright/novelist/composer - invited Patricia to perform alongside him in a cabaret of his songs. This marked the beginning of an artistic collaboration that continues to this day. In 2014, Tomson Highway released his first studio recording, Patricia Cano Sings Songs from The (Post) Mistress, and in 2015, the album was nominated for a JUNO in the Aboriginal Album of the Year category. In 2017, Patricia won the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Cree, English and French in Highway's one-woman musical, The (Post) Mistress (Pleiades Theatre & Théâtre Français de Toronto co-production).

In 2002, Patricia was invited to work with the celebrated French theatre company le Théâtre du Soleil. She worked four years alongside Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, the world renowned 'musicien de théâtre', as well as the company's legendary director, Ariane Mnouchkine. These two giants of the theatre world helped shape and broaden Patricia's path beyond her imagination. Most notably, Mnouchkine sent Patricia to Seoul, South Korea to study traditional Korean singing and drumming for three months, an experience so intense and vocally enriching that Patricia decided to leave Paris and return home in search of a music career.

After a 6 month period in Rio de Janeiro, Patricia released her first studio album, co-written with her friend and music collaborator, Brazilian composer/arranger/producer and multi-instrumentalist, Carlos Bernardo. The album entitled This is the New World was launched in 2009 and features songs in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It won the award for Best Album by a Solo Artist at the 2011 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards, and marked the beginning of Patricia's professional solo music career, a career that now boasts multiple tours in British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario, as well as performances at Jazz and Folk festivals across the country. Songs from this album have been featured on the hit TVO television series Hard Rock Medical, as well as the TFO documentary series, LA PORTÉE DES MOTS. Her voice is also featured on two songs of an exquisite album called A LUZ, by the Toronto based composer, Louis Simão - simaomusic.com.

In October 2017, Patricia launched her sophomore album, Madre Amiga Hermana, featuring original compositions in Spanish, English and French. Once again, the album is a collaboration between Patricia and her longtime collaborator, Carlos Bernardo. Produced by Luis Orbegoso, one of Toronto's finest latin percussionists (who also produced Patricia's debut album), Madre Amiga Hermana is dedicated to her grandmother, Carmela Beingolea, and explores themes of femininity like womanhood, motherhood, sisterhood and more.

At the 2019 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards, Patricia won the award for Outstanding Vocal Performance on a Recording for her version of Violeta Parra's song "Gracias a la Vida".