Laura Fernandez

Laura Fernandez- was born in Madrid, Spain,. She is a singer, songwriter, pianist, painter, award-winning illustrator , radio host and producer. Laura had an international upbringing, living in Switzerland as a child and later immigrating to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where she spent her youth. Laura grew up in a household where art, creativity and culture were highly valued and encouraged. Though she excelled in academics, she ultimately dedicated her life to art. After graduating from the Alberta College of Art with honours, Laura moved to Toronto to begin a successful career in illustration, and where she launched her music career.

Laura had always loved and played music, and completed studies at The Royal Conservatory of Music. However, her primary creative outlet had been visual art; with a distinguished career consisting of editorial, publishing and commercial illustration, design projects and other commissioned works and portraits. Her work hangs in the permanent collection of the Royal Geographic Society in London, England. She has illustrated over 16 children’s picture books with her illustration partner Rick Jacobson and won prestigious industry awards such as the Ruth Schwartz Award, Toronto and New York Art Directors Club Awards of Excellence, and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, a gold medal for illustration awarded by the Canadian Library Association.

Laura Fernandez’s transition to a career as a recording artist and performer was a natural extension of her work as a visual artist, who sees her musical compositions as paintings, but expressed in a different medium. Laura launched her debut CD The Other Side in 2003, a mostly English language collection of songs described as lyric driven, melodic folk, rock-pop with a groove. She won the Best Soft Rock Award at the 2003 New York International Independent Music Festival, which included performances at Madison Square Gardens, she has performed at legendary venues such as the Knitting Factory, The Bitter End and The Continental, and festivals including The TD Toronto Jazz Festival, Winterfolk, and the International World Music Festival in Cuba.

Laura Fernandez recently released her second CD Un Solo Beso. The project was produced by Montreal born, Toronto based JUNO Award winning producer Billy Bryans, who is recognized as one of Canada’s leading Latin and world music promoters, DJ and also the co-leader and percussionist of the internationally acclaimed Canadian band, The Parachute Club . Un Solo Beso, fuses two approaches: the discipline of pop-folk songwriting; and the musically expansive sounds of Latin and jazz styles.

Un Solo Beso was recorded in Toronto and features arrangements by JUNO award winning pianist Hilario Duran, as well as guitarist/bandleader Luis Mario Ochoa, and keyboardist Roberto Linares Brown. The songs on Un Solo Beso were written by Laura Fernandez, except ‘Inolvidable’, by Julio Gutierrez and ‘Red Red Bird’ by Noah Zacharin with Spanish translation by Laura Fernandez.. The album features some of Toronto’s most vibrant and highly acclaimed musicians including Hilario Duran, Roberto Linares Brown, Luis Mario Ochoa, Noah Zacharin, Glenda Del Monte Escalante, Alberto Alberto, Elmer Ferrer, Luiz Deniz, Roberto Riveron , Joaquin Hidalgo, Chendy León, Jalidan Ruiz, and Alexis Baro. Laura found expression and joy in working with musicians who shared her Spanish language mother tongue; and did not feel constraint by genre barriers, instead preferred to let each song take on its own shape organically

Laura Fernandez is performing concerts of Un Solo Beso and planning touring activities for 2011-2012. Based in Toronto, she is the producer and host of Café Latino on Canada’s premier Jazz stations ;JazzFM91.