About Patricia
Patricia Santos is a singing cellist (or vocellist) and songwriter of varied musical styles. She draws on her classical training to meld the cello with non-classical styles and explorative techniques. Her own songs range from blues to rock to folk and art-pop. Lucid Culture called her a "dark, diverse cello rocker", and Vance Gilbert describes her “as if Nina Simone and Yo-Yo Ma had a kid.” Her debut EP "Never Like You Think" was listed on New York Music Daily's Top 50 NYC Albums of 2015. Patricia is half of the duo of singing cellists The Whiskey Girls, half of Petty Larceny with her multi-instrumentalist husband Brian Broelmann, and is a member of parlor rock big band Kotorino. As a songwriter for the Bushwick Book Club, she was an artist in residence at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis in the fall of 2022; working with four other songwriters, an album’s worth of new songs were created as a part of Banned Books Week, an international anti-censorship project. She has worked with artists such as Hurray for the Riff Raff, Katreese Barnes, Martha Redbone, Charming Disaster, Valerie Simpson, The Orange Peels, Emily Mure, Tim Haufe, Adam Falcon, and Prince Ea. She has played in venues around the country including Carnegie Hall, Joe's Pub, Bowery Ballroom, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 54 Below, NPR's Tiny Desk, House of Blues, Beachland Ballroom, The Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland, and The Oriental Theater in Denver.
Patricia is a teaching artist for Musicambia, a non-profit that brings the transformational power of music to incarcerated communities, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the New Directions Cello Association, an alternative-style cello festival, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Violoncello Society of New York. She became a voting member of the Recording Academy in 2022. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in Cello Performance from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory with Regina Mushabac, and her postgraduate studies were with Bryan Dumm of the Cleveland Orchestra. Patricia was born and raised in New York as a proud daughter of immigrants, and she now resides in the Hudson Valley with her husband. They share a house with a few four-legged folks and dozens of instruments.
Patricia is a teaching artist for Musicambia, a non-profit that brings the transformational power of music to incarcerated communities, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the New Directions Cello Association, an alternative-style cello festival, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Violoncello Society of New York. She became a voting member of the Recording Academy in 2022. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in Cello Performance from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory with Regina Mushabac, and her postgraduate studies were with Bryan Dumm of the Cleveland Orchestra. Patricia was born and raised in New York as a proud daughter of immigrants, and she now resides in the Hudson Valley with her husband. They share a house with a few four-legged folks and dozens of instruments.