Calgary-born, Montréal-based soprano Brittany Rae excels in both classical and contemporary repertoire, from opera and art song to world premieres. Challenging conventions in both traditions, she brings a fresh perspective to the familiar and a fearless energy to the new. She is a First Prize Winner of the 2020 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, Canada’s national competition for contemporary and Canadian music.

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In the 2026–27 season, Brittany will join the Quasar saxophone quartet and pianist Ludovic Rochon in Montréal to give the world premiere of Jesse Plessis’s Tifaifai, Trois Poèmes de Flora Aurima Devatine as part of Ondes passerelles, presented with Le Vivier. In March 2027, she will sing in the chorus of Atys with Ballet Opéra Pantomime and Opéra de Montréal, in Jonathan Dawe and Stéphanie Jasmin’s reimagining of Lully’s opera. In April 2027, she will perform in Toronto in Soundstreams’ Praise Song for Oceania, a program curated by Jesse Plessis featuring music by Leilehua Lanzilotti, Plessis and Ravel.

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Since 2024, Brittany has been collaborating closely with pianist Rosane Lajoie. Together, they share a deep passion for exploring creative and approachable ways to fuse classical song repertoire with contemporary work. In September 2026, as part of Le Vivier’s Pôle Relève Emerging Artist Program, they premiered two new song cycles for voice and piano by Louis-Michel Tougas and Olivier St-Pierre in Voix croisées, a concert bringing together the mélodie tradition and new music.

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An avid advocate of contemporary music, Brittany is committed to workshopping and creating new works. She collaborated with composer Jesse Plessis and librettist Thomas Ayouti on the opera L’épaisseur du silence, performed with Codes d’accès in 2022 and further developed during a creation residency funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. She has also workshopped several new pieces with Musique 3 Femmes (now Opéra Magnolia), including Raccoon Opera (Rebecca Gray/Rachel Gray) and Number Our Days (Luna Pearl Woolf/David Van Taylor), as well as the newly commissioned opera Monsters Made (Roan Shankaruk/Georgia Perdikoulias) with Good Mess Opera Theatre in Winnipeg. She performed the role of 'Littler Sister' in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up as part of Ammolite Opera’s inaugural season. Passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration, she has also worked with a pianist and dancers on a multimedia project inspired by Schumann’s Dichterliebe.

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Brittany has participated in numerous contemporary music festivals and training programs. These include ‘Opera in the 21st Century’ and the 2020 ‘Concert in the 21st Century’ Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, as well as the 2019 SoundSCAPE Festival, where she studied with soprano and contemporary music specialist Tony Arnold. She also took part in the 2019 Against the Grain Summer Modern Intensive Program in Toronto, performing excerpts from operas of the 20th and 21st centuries. Brittany was also a member of the Association for Opera in Canada’s 2021–22 RBC Artist Fellowship and Mentorship Program.

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Previous engagements include performing new works with Codes d’accès, Pierrot Lunaire (Ensemble Lagom), Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Toronto City Opera), Songbook IX (Tapestry Opera), Oper’Actuel (Chants Libres), and exhibitions by Jasmina Cibic and Lee Mingwei at Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain in Montréal. Brittany also performs regularly with several Montréal choirs and ensembles, including the Montréal Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Choir of the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul and Les Rugissants.

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Brittany is a graduate of McGill University, where she completed a Graduate Artist Diploma. Her performances at McGill included the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera McGill, soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Schulich Singers and Concert Choir, and soprano soloist in Fausto Romitelli’s Lost with the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. Brittany continues to collaborate with various conductors and composers at McGill University and has been a featured soloist in recent performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky’s Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise.

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Brittany also holds a Master of Arts in Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto. She is grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, the AIDA Fund (Jeunesses Musicales du Canada) and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.