Soprano Kayla Ruiz recently completed her Master of Music in Historical Performance Voice at the University of Toronto in the studio of Canadian Countertenor Daniel Taylor, with Professor Mary Morrison., and undergraduate studies at York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours in Vocal Performance in the studio of Norma Burrows (2017). While at York, she participated in French and German Masterclasses with Nathalie Paulin, Brett Polegato, Rosemarie Landry, Che Anne Loewen, and Leslie Fagan. Kayla was also a chosen soloist in Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, and several others. She also won the Dynamic Duo Scholarship (2014), as well as the Dixie Jean Andrews Memorial Scholarship (2016) from Newmarket’s Voice Festival. In 2015, Kayla participated in a European tour of Belgium, Amsterdam, and Italy with the York University Chamber Choir, and sang with the Ottawa Bach Choir, Ensemble Caprice and soloists in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, both under the direction of Dr. Lisette Canton. Past concerts with OBC also include a performance of R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis in the Luminato Festival (2015), as well as a tour of China, where she had the opportunity to perform with OBC and Ensemble Caprice in the Meet in Beijing Festival in Beijing and Shanghai, China (2016).

Performance highlights for soprano Kayla Ruiz include the role of Oronte in Handel’s Alcina in Lucca, Italy, at the Accademia Europea Dell’Opera (AEDO), as well as the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in June 2019. She became a full-time professional chorister and soloist with the Ottawa Bach Choir in 2017 under the direction of Dr. Lisette Canton, and was praised as one of the soloists in Gramophone Magazine for her “exquisite” contribution on the choir’s 2019 JUNO nominated CD recording of Handel’s Dixit Dominus. Most recently, Kayla appeared with the chorus in Opera Atelier’s 2019 production of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Ed Mirvish Theatre.