Vidas

quot;Canada's emerging Latin music queenquot; 680 News, Toronto quot;Subtle, strong, elegant, sophisticated yet simple and honest, that is how I would describe Eliana Cuevas' singing, stage presence and music.quot; The Live Music Report, Toronto quot;Musical class on an international level meets driving Caribbean rhythms and first class Latinquot; Hamburg Morning Dail, Germany After a decade of intensive performing, writing and composing, Eliana Cuevas is rising from the ranks to acclaim as one of Canada's finest world and jazz music performers and creators. Eliana came to Toronto from her native Venezuela to attend the University of Toronto. A student of music in her homeland, Eliana began to write songs at the age of 12. However, it was in Toronto that she began to perform them in public. By the late nineties she was working as a vocalist in some of Toronto's top Latin jazz, salsa and Brazilian ensembles. Although Eliana enjoyed singing with other musicians and composers she admires, she felt most fulfilled when she was able to express her own thoughts and feelings in her music. In 2002 she put together a band and recorded her first CD of five original songs- Cohesion. In 2003 she toured west for the first time, performing at world music and jazz festivals including Vancouver's International Jazz Festival. A year later she recorded and released Ventura, her first full-length CD, and toured from Nova Scotia to British Columbia receiving standing ovations. She returned home to find she had won the Ontario Conference of Folk Festivals' From The Heart songwriting award in world music for Rompe Mi Alma, one of the tracks from Ventura. Since then Eliana has been busy creating and performing. She has toured across the country from concert halls in such diverse locales as Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Sioux Lookout, Ontario and Whitehorse, Yukon to festivals including the Ness Creek Music Festival in rural Saskatchewan to Festival Vancouver to the Festival des rhytmes du monde in Montreal and a dozen or two more. In 2006 she made her debut on her native Venezuelan soil at the Hatillo Jazz Festival and her European debut at the Reeperbahn Jazz Festival in Hamburg. Fall of 2007 was also great for Eliana- she performed in Alberta for the first time, won the Toronto Independent Music Awards- World Music Artist of the Year and released her brand new CD- Vidas. A collection of songs she describes as' gifts I've received from lives that have crossed my path,' it features original compositions about lives that have touched hers and two South American classics that were brought to her by important people in her life. Among the new original compositions is 'Otra Noche De Menos Veinte' (Another Night of Minus Twenty), a piece Cuevas wrote about a homeless man she saw regularly in downtown Toronto. 'Mercado De Vida' (Life Market), is about a woman's struggle to find meaning in motherhood and how children are often treated as merchandise in the process of adoption. 'Inocencia' (Innocence) is a special song about the innocence of children. Vidas is a powerfull and compelling group of songs and along with her stellar band, who are just shy of celebrating their fifth year together, Eliana is taking Vidas on the road for festivals and concerts in 2008.