Soprano Brittany Rae, originally from Calgary and now based in Montréal, thrives at the intersection of classical and contemporary music, challenging conventions and enriching both traditions. A First Prize Winner of the 2020 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, she embarked on a cross-Canada winner's tour with pianist Jesse Plessis in Fall 2020. Recent highlights include 'Opera in the 21st Century' at the Banff Centre and collaborating with composer Jesse Plessis and librettist Thomas Ayouti on the opera L'épaisseur du silence, presented by Codes d'Accès and Chants Libres. The team completed a creation residency in June 2024 funded by the Canada Council for the Arts to develop the work further.

 

An avid advocate of contemporary music, Brittany is committed to workshopping and creating new works. In recent seasons, she has workshopped several new pieces with Musique 3 Femmes, 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 also performed the role of 'Littler Sister' in Missy Mazzoli's Proving Up, as a part of Ammolite Opera's inaugural season. Passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration, she also recently 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 including the 2020 'Concert in the 21st Century' Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the 2019 SoundSCAPE Festival where she studied with soprano and contemporary music specialist, Tony Arnold, as well as 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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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 the 2025/2026 season, Brittany and Rosane will commission, workshop and create a new song cycle, as part of Le Vivier's Pôle Relève Emerging Artist Program in Montréal.

 

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. 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 Pierrot Lunaire (Schönberg) and Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise (Stravinsky).

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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.