Acclaim

"In a program of French, German, English and Russian, they (Mr. and Mrs. Cano) delighted, wowed, and stunned us with great theatricality and profound musicianship by pulling out all the stops, and sparing no vocal trick."

"In her Russian set, she gave us chills in her dramatic interpretation of Georgy Sviridov’s “The Virgin in the City.” As the chords churned and the text delve deeper into the story, Ms. Cano’s performance became darker and more thrilling. She kept one on the edge of ones seat as the piece drew to its climax. The music and her poetry in the text just broke your heart."

"At the end of the day, all any of this is about connecting. Taking simple dots on lines and communicating from a single person, or persons, to a group of people sitting in the dark. Simple in concept yet marvelously gratifying when executed properly. Mr and Ms. Cano not only communicated, but they touched our souls with their music."

"This is how recitals should be sung: gripping, communicative, and spellbinding."

"Could Harbison have asked for a more compelling vocal interpreter than the young mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano? She warmly communicated the emotional impact of every phrase, employing with evident ease a vibrant, bright mezzo voice that commanded the modest confines of Sherwood Auditorium. With all of her operatic horsepower, however, she did not allow a single word of Glück’s concise text to slip by unnoticed."

"The mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano demonstrated emotionally concentrated musicianship in three songs by Liszt, with fervent piano accompaniment by her husband, Christopher Cano. Her voice seems to come out of a happy nexus of heart, soul and brain that lends an authoritative weight to every note."

"Those who missed Monday's recital by the young mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater lost a rare opportunity to hear a fine talent with a promising future right at her doorstep."

"Her sweeping gestures, expansive dynamic range and myriad tonal colors reflected Woolf’s most intimate confessions, giving them an immediacy directly felt throughout the theater."

"With the first notes of Porpora's ultra-baroque homage to Jove, it was obvious that Cano has a voluminous voice with remarkable agility in her higher range and a molten contralto quality lower down, gliding between these registers with seeming ease."

"Jennifer Johnson Cano brought a sincerity and emotional depth to these beautiful songs that made the texts' occasional excesses seem completely irrelevant."