Soprano

Ruby Hughes is a former BBC New Generation Artist and was winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition. She holds a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and was Shortlisted for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award.

She has become known for her interpretations of the music of the baroque and 20th and 21st Century, performed at every turn with a unique sensitivity and artistry. On the opera stage she has sung productions for Theater an der Wein (Roggiero in Rossini's Tancredi, and Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Aix-en-Provence Festival (EuridiceL'Orfeo), Opéra de Toulon (Rose MaurrantStreet Scene) and Potsdamer Winteroper (title role, Theodora) and in the UK has performed major roles with English National Opera, Garsington Opera and for Scottish Opera.

Ruby works regularly with conductors including Rinaldo Allesandrini, Ivor Bolton, Laurence Cummings, Thierry Fischer, Pablo Heras Casado, Rene Jacobs, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, Marc Minkowski, Hervé Niquet, Thomas Søndergård, John Storgårds, and Osmo Vänskä. She is a passionate programmer, curator and collaborator and has forged particularly close relationships with Mime Brinkmann and Jonas Nordberg (baroque trio), Laurence Cummings, Joseph Middleton, Natalie Clein and Julius Drake, Huw Watkins, United Strings of Europe and The Manchester Collective.

Her captivating communication with the audience has resulted in invitations to give recitals at Wigmore Hall, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Gent, Kings Place, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Schloss Elmau, Vienna Konzerthaus, LSO St Luke’s and in the US at both the Frick Collection and Carnegie Hall, New York. Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Edinburgh International, Newbury, Aldeburgh Festival, La Folle Journée, Gent Festival OdeGand, Göttingen, Marlboro, Spitalfields and Beaune and Namur.

She has built up an impressive discography including a solo recital recording for Champs Hill records and a disc for Chandos Records with Laurence Cummings and the OAE in tribute to Giulia Frasi, Handel’s lyric muse. For the BIS label she has recorded "Heroines of Love and Loss", which is dedicated to 17th century women composers and was released to huge critical acclaim including a Diapason d’or award, a highly praised album of works by Mahler, Berg and Rhian Samuel, "Clytemnestra", together with BBCNOW, which was nominated for a Gramophone Award. She has recorded Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Minnesota Symphony under Osmo Vänskä, a solo recital disc with Joseph Middleton titled "Songs for New Life and Love" including works by Mahler, Ives and Helen Grime and most recently a programme with United Strings of Europe including Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra. Future recording projects for BIS include a baroque disc with Mime Brinkmann and Jonas Nordberg, and two recordings with Manchester Collective to include commissions by Edmund Finnis and Deborah Pritchard as well as Britten’s Les Illuminations, a programme which they performed together in a UK tour to great critical acclaim.

Ruby’s passion for performing new repertoire and has also led to her becoming a champion of female composers having had many commissions written for her including those by Helen Grime, Deborah Pritchard Judith Weir and Errolyn Wallen.

Highlights for Ruby’s upcoming season include concerts with Bach Collegium Japan, performing Bach’s Matthew Passion under Masaaki Suzuki, Orchestre d’Auvergne (Britten’s Les Illuminations), Residente Orchestra (Ruckert Lieder), Orchestre National de Lille (Mozart Great Mass in C), Potsdam Kammerakademie, Aarhus Symfoniorkester and recitals at WIgmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. 22/23 will also see the release of the disk ECHO with Huw Watkins, released on the BIS label.