Alicia Toner

Alicia Toner grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her parents didn’t play music, but it was in her family. Alicia’s father’s side of the family was very musical, and she credits her grandmother and her uncle for musically influencing her in her youth. She was always encouraged to pursue her artistic dreams, and she credits her mother for really believing in her. At the age of fourteen, she told her mother she wanted to go to Julliard to study violin, and without hesitation, her mother championed the idea. 

She didn’t end up at Julliard, but she did study Music Theatre at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario and upon completion, she spent ten years as a professional singer, dancer, singer, and musician. Alicia first started coming to Prince Edward Island as a cast member of The Charlottetown Festival in 2012. In those years, she would spend four inspired months here and the other eight months waiting to return. In 2014, she bought a house in Charlottetown and made PEI her permanent home. 

As a songwriter/musician, she is a Canadian Folk Music Award winner, a Music PEI award winner, and an ECMA nominated artist. In 2024, Alicia was the artist-in-residence at Under the Spire, curating shows and performances throughout the festival’s season. 

Alicia blends folk and roots music with pop-rock, and she delivers her heartfelt songs with a very moving and emotive voice. There is a firm power in her voice, but she can turn on a dime and really hit you hard with tenderness as well. Her songs are inspired by real life, and by therapeutic means, they allow her to process trauma or feelings she might otherwise avoid. 

Lately, she draws inspiration from her daughter. She feels a sense of determination and finds herself working harder toward her goals. Alicia admits, “she makes small things beautiful again, makes the bigger picture more visible, and that shows up in the words that I write.”

To date, she has released two albums, both produced by Stuart Cameron, a very accomplished Canadian musician in his own right, and the son of John Allan Cameron. They met during Alicia’s Toronto days and struck up a strong musical and personal connection.  

In recent years, she has been working more often in the theatrical side of music and she is thriving in the collaborative landscape of this creative PEI community. She has been a part of shows produced by Craig Fair and is a regular performer at Harmony House Theatre in Hunter River. Alicia met and worked with Harmony House co-owner Mike Ross in her Toronto days, and since his return to PEI, they’ve co-created two shows, Ladies of the Canyon and Beyond the Veil: A Lucy Maud Concert Experience. Most recently, she was in Toronto for a three-week run of the Harmony House Theatre hit, Inside American Pie, presented by Mirvish Productions.  

She has plans to make a third Alicia Toner album, but for the immediate future, she will be very busy in performance at Harmony House for the Summer 2025 season. You can catch her in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Beyond the Veil, Ladies of the Canyon, and Inside American Pie.

“I love that I make things that didn’t exist before. It might be a small contribution, but it feels like a necessary good contribution to the universal energy around us. I think we need as many people making art as possible.” She admits, “I plan to keep going until I drop dead, because I have to. If I’m not making or singing something, I get sad.”