Colombian soprano Patricia Caicedo was raised surrounded by the rhythms, sounds and colors of Latin American music. She began her musical journey singing the ‘Cancion con todos’, a song that was made famous by Mercedes Sosa y transformed to a national hymn that taught Latin American unity. In her adolescent years, accompanied by guitar, Patricia sang boleros, rancheras, songs of protest, and the Cuban trova and of course the Andean Colombian music of which converted in one of the principle exponents having obtained almost all prizes that were able to be obtained in her country. Only after when she had turned twenty-two years old, after finished her studies in medicine is when Patricia began her vocal studies and launched her international career in opera and art song. It is this very purpose that singing and recording DE MI CORAZON LATINO, with songs from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain, Patricia is returning home, to her roots. Also very significant, is the opportunity to record this disc with the arranger, composer and conductor Javier Martinez Maya, friend of Patricia’s since her adolescent years with whom she shared many afternoons giving life and vibrancy to these songs. The love for Latin American culture and her focus on the folkloric and popular songs of Latin America have been the foundation that has inspired her career in regards to the art song recital. DE MI CORAZON LATINO was inspired then by the desire to share with the international public the richness, happiness, diversity and rhythms of Ibero-American music. The orchestral arrangements were also realized by the Colombian Javier Martinez Maya found above all to take the original sound and fabric of these popular and folkloric songs into an orchestral language in a contemporary way with a jazz influence and maintaining the rhythms that make this music distinctively Latin American. Certain that this music possessed a cathartic, restoring , ‘creator of the world’ type power, Patricia desired that the theme of the songs was positive, full of hope and encouraged all Latin Americans to be proud of their roots and their rich ancestral history. The songs Gracias a la vida, Como la cigarra, Canción con todos, América, Pueblito viejo y La flor de la canela are songs full of happiness that exalt the national pride and are also recognized as symbol of identify for some of the above mentioned countries. The particular dynamic in these songs of using a modern sound that in moments is similar to jazz and always faithful to the original spirit, Martinez Maya created an arrangement that is fresh, original, contemporary and traditional at the same time. In contrast, the boleros En mi viejo San Juán, Noches de Cartagena y Nosotros invite nostalgia and takes us with the orchestral sound achieved by Martinez May, to the Carribbean of the 1950s, that unforgettable epic which the greatest voices and orchestras of the Bolero genre were heard. The known tango of Gardel El día que me quieras y the Brazilan song Azulão evoke distant love always with a stream of nostalgia and fantasy. But perhaps nothing is as nostalgic as the habanera La paloma. This piece was written in 1895 by Basque composer Yradier, perhaps La paloma is one of the most famous and well known dances in the entire world. With its easy lyric, it enchanted a selected public of the Perla de Caribe until 1866 was performed by Cuban soprano Concha Méndez en the Imperial Theatre of the capital of that city where it was revealed by the Emperor Maximilian and the Empress Carlota. It has been said to have been the favorite song of the melancholy Empress. We hope that listening to DE MI CORAZON LATINO, will transport you to the kaleidoscope of the Iberian American universe while at the same time awakening en your hearts all the love, nostalgia and joy that Patricia Caicedo and the Orquesta Iberoamericana, under the direction of Javier Martínez Maya have put in the creation of this recording.