Winner of Second Prize at the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Ella Taylor is a soprano with a passion for per- forming contemporary music and works by women and gender non-conforming artists. They graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, where they gained Distinction in MA Performance, a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital and the Charles Norman Prize and during 2019 / 2020 were a Young Artist at London’s National Opera Studio. They currently study with Elizabeth Ritchie. Accolades include the Lesley Garrett Opera Prize (David Clover Singers Platform), finalist in the Vincerò Opera Competition, and a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Vocal Competition.
Recent engagements have included Paris in Bampton Classical Opera’s production of Paris and Helen by Gluck, Sparrow in Rylan Gleave’s Powder Down for Shadwell Opera’s Digital Commission Series, Josquin des Prez: Mille Regretz for English Touring Opera’s Spring 2021 Digital Season and Pierrot Lunaire with The Façade Ensemble, Momentum: Our Future, Now Recitals with Roderick Williams for the 2021 Brighton Festival and at Vinehall School and The Cock The Cunning Little Vixen on tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. They were also an Emerging Artist for Oxford Lieder’s Autumn 2021 season.
Notable concert highlights include Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at Sheffield Cathedral, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Royal Academy of Music, and a performance on BBC Radio 3 of Oliver Knussen’s Trumpets at the British Composer Awards. Their BBC broadcasts further include Music Matters and their concert repertoire includes many of the major oratorios by J. S. Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart. Their recordings include Burst forth my tears / Flow my tears (featuring music by John Dowland arranged for synthesisers), available on Classical Remix.
Ella Taylor is a keen collaborator and recitalist, making a dedicated effort to work with and perform works by people underrepresented in classical music. Recent collaborations include the project After Violence with _REMIX; an exploration of violence and masculinity through a queer lens with drag artist Rhys’s Pieces, as well as working with composers and librettists in the creation of new, LGBT+ work. Recently, they gave a talk for the Royal Opera House’s Engender 2021 Festival about navigating a career as a trans opera singer, and how companies can be the most effective allies they can be. A film with the newly formed Trans Voices Choir (part of London Contemporary Voices) will be released on Guardian Films, which Ella is a founding member of. They have also performed at Leeds Lieder as part of the Composer and Poets Forum and with Ensemble 360 at Music in the Round.
Their current engagements include The Fox (Cover) The Cunning Little Vixen for English National Opera, Gerda in Errolyn Wallen’s The Paradis Files for Graeae, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Opus 48 and Alicia Jane Turner’s Tell me when you get home with the London Sinfonietta. They are scheduled to make their debut at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the 2022 / 2023 season.
Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.