Patricia Santos is a songwriter and singing cellist of varied musical styles. She draws on her classical training to meld the cello with non-classical approaches 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. A New York native, she has played in storied 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. She has worked with artists such as Hurray for the Riff Raff, Katreese Barnes, Martha Redbone, Charming Disaster, Emily Mure, Tim Haufe, Valerie Simpson, The Orange Peels, and Prince Ea.

Patricia is a teaching artist for Musicambia, a non-profit that brings the transformative power of music education to incarcerated communities. She serves on the Board of Directors of the New Directions Cello Association and previously served on the Board of 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.