Biography
Emerging from Ontario during the early years of the 2000s, Canadian jazz vocalist and educator Diana Panton earned recognition for her sensitive, emotionally resonant interpretations of classic material. Following her initial acclaim, she has released several well-received recordings, among them the 2013 Juno Award-winning RED and the 2015 children's jazz project I Believe In Little Things.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Panton was raised on classical music until her father introduced her to jazz through an Ella Fitzgerald recording. In high school she pursued studies on both clarinet and violin, yet only during her final year did her vocal instructor urge her to try out for the Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band, a youth ensemble based locally.
Her acceptance into the group launched a performing career that included European tours and an appearance at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival. While working with the Hamilton ensemble she encountered multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson, later a frequent collaborator, who recommended she participate in the renowned jazz workshop at the Banff Center for the Arts, where he served on faculty. There she studied under notable figures including Norma Winstone, Jay Clayton, and Sheila Jordan, experiences that proved formative.
Although music had already brought early success, Panton elected to major in French at the university level, a pursuit rooted in an elementary-school language-immersion program. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in French literature from McMaster University, attended art courses at Parsons Paris, and has instructed at the postsecondary level in France as well as Canada. In addition to her professional singing, she has taught French, art, and drama at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton.
Panton's recording career began in 2005 with the intimate trio album ...yesterday perhaps, which featured Thompson alongside guitarist Reg Schwager. The 2007 follow-up If the Moon Turns Green again included Thompson and brought her first Juno Award nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album. She received a second nomination for 2009's Pink, which reunited her with Thompson and Schwager while adding trumpeter Guido Basso. On the 2011 release To Brazil with Love she explored the Brazilian bossa nova repertoire with percussionists Maninho Costa and Silas Silva. The holiday collection Christmas Kiss appeared the next year.
In 2013 she issued RED, conceived as a companion to Pink, and the album secured her first Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album. Two years afterward came her debut children's recording, I Believe in Little Things; rather than altering her established jazz approach, she selected material whose lyrics she considered suitable for younger listeners. The album entered the Billboard Jazz Albums chart at number eight. Her second children's project, A Cheerful Little Earful, followed in 2019.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Panton was raised on classical music until her father introduced her to jazz through an Ella Fitzgerald recording. In high school she pursued studies on both clarinet and violin, yet only during her final year did her vocal instructor urge her to try out for the Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band, a youth ensemble based locally.
Her acceptance into the group launched a performing career that included European tours and an appearance at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival. While working with the Hamilton ensemble she encountered multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson, later a frequent collaborator, who recommended she participate in the renowned jazz workshop at the Banff Center for the Arts, where he served on faculty. There she studied under notable figures including Norma Winstone, Jay Clayton, and Sheila Jordan, experiences that proved formative.
Although music had already brought early success, Panton elected to major in French at the university level, a pursuit rooted in an elementary-school language-immersion program. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in French literature from McMaster University, attended art courses at Parsons Paris, and has instructed at the postsecondary level in France as well as Canada. In addition to her professional singing, she has taught French, art, and drama at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton.
Panton's recording career began in 2005 with the intimate trio album ...yesterday perhaps, which featured Thompson alongside guitarist Reg Schwager. The 2007 follow-up If the Moon Turns Green again included Thompson and brought her first Juno Award nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album. She received a second nomination for 2009's Pink, which reunited her with Thompson and Schwager while adding trumpeter Guido Basso. On the 2011 release To Brazil with Love she explored the Brazilian bossa nova repertoire with percussionists Maninho Costa and Silas Silva. The holiday collection Christmas Kiss appeared the next year.
In 2013 she issued RED, conceived as a companion to Pink, and the album secured her first Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album. Two years afterward came her debut children's recording, I Believe in Little Things; rather than altering her established jazz approach, she selected material whose lyrics she considered suitable for younger listeners. The album entered the Billboard Jazz Albums chart at number eight. Her second children's project, A Cheerful Little Earful, followed in 2019.