Little Miss Ann

Ann Torralba, aka Little Miss Ann, is an award-winning Chicago kids musician, a former Chicago Public School teacher, an instructor at Chicago’s iconic Old Town School of Folk Music, a mom, and a first generation Filipina American. 

Little Miss Ann has made 5 family music albums that span different genres such as folk, rock, punk, country, bluegrass and more.  Ann sings and plays guitar, ukulele, various flutes, and percussional instruments on her albums. Little Miss Ann’s last album,“Keep On” was produced by Grammy winning producer, Dean Jones who is currently producing her 6th album. She has received wonderful accolades for her albums such as NAAPA award and the Parent’s Choice Award. 

Besides writing, recording and performing reinvented classics and soulful originals that all children can enjoy, Little Miss Ann has also written and collaborated on songs that highlight her Filipina American culture. The songs include “Ube”, a song about a Filipino dessert ingredient (a purple yam) and“Stars on the Island”, a song about a Filipina-American daughter going to “where her parents are from” the Phillippines for the first time during the holidays. Here, she observes “Parols” which are decorative stars that line the streets of the Phillippines during the holidays. She also collaborated on a song with fellow Fil-Am kindie rocker Mista Cookie Jar, CJ Pizarro, on a song about a favorite Filipino dessert called “Halo-Halo”. All songs were on rotation on Sirius XM Kids Place Live. This is a positive step towards more representation for Asian Americans who have been underrepresented in family music for many years. 

Little Miss Ann enjoys collaborating with other family artists including family music supergroup, “Kindiana Jones”, a band consisting of kids musicians from across the country. Their songs include “You got it”, “The Questions”, and “Virtual Hug” 

Another recent song collaboration includes “Fly, Shine, Soar”. Little Miss Ann wrote and re-recorded this song with Latin Grammy winning bilingual artists, 123 Andres. 

Besides recording music, Little Miss Ann has performed everywhere from New York to Nashville to Los Angeles with the Little Miss Ann Band which includes her husband, the drummer, Patrick Milani. They have played notable festivals like SXSW and Lollapalooza as well music venues like the Strathmore Theater or the Overture Center. 

While Little Miss Ann enjoys recording and performing as a family musician, Little Miss Ann has also produced several charity concerts, written about all things “Kindie” such as Lollapalooza Kids stage round up of artists and gives workshops about the benefits of music in homes and classrooms at National Early Childhood conventions.  Little Miss Ann is actively involved with Family Music Forward, a diverse collaboration of family artists who seek to amplify black family artists in Family Music. 

For over a decade, Little Miss Ann has shows her true passion and love for family music. She feels grateful for having found her true calling and being supported in many ways by the family music community.