Praised for her “enchanting and expressive singing” (Henley Standard) and her “buoyant charm as an actor,” (Georgia Strait), Vancouver-born soprano Bridget Esler joins the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique as an artist-in-residence in the 2024-25 season. Recently returned to Canada from London, England, where she completed her graduate studies, Bridget has performed across Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States with ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, at venues including Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre.

This season, she will make her Opéra de Montréal mainstage debut as Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Her upcoming operatic roles include Monica in The Medium (Orchestre classique de Montréal), and the Nightingale/Pastourelle/Owl in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (Opéra de Montréal). In October, Bridget takes part in Joyce DiDonato’s popular series of masterclasses for emerging opera singers at Carnegie Hall. Her past opera roles the Parrot in Anna Pidgorna’s Plaything (Musique 3 Femmes/Opera America), Artemisia in Ivan Barbotin’s The Rape of Artemisia, and Mary in Street Scene (Opera McGill).

A keen chamber musician and recitalist, Bridget was a 2024 artist-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. She was a Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2023, and a Samling Artist at the Samling Institute in 2022. Experienced on the competition circuit, Bridget was awarded Third Prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation’s 2024 Lieder/Song Vocal Competition, Most Outstanding Canadian Musician at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, and first place in the Guildhall School’s English Song Prize in 2023. She enjoys a busy schedule as a concert soloist, with recent engagements including Carmina Burana (Amchor), semi-chorus in Elijah (London Symphony Orchestra), Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (Islington Choral Society), and Messiah (Kimbolton School).

Bridget has a special interest in contemporary music; she has sung six world premières and champions the works of twentieth- and twenty-first-century composers in her repertoire. Recent new music performance highlights include Lukas Foss’ Time Cycle at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, and an appearance at the Opera America New Works Forum in New York City.

Bridget is the recipient of support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, the Josephine Baker Trust, the Art Song Foundation of Canada, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Adelaide E. Alexander Memorial Scholarship. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.