Canadian soprano Bridget Esler was born and raised in Vancouver and is currently based in London where she serves as a Junior Fellow in the vocal department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In the 2024/25 season, she will join the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique as an artist-in-residence. She completed her Master’s of Music at Guildhall in 2023 under the tutelage of Samantha Malk, following the attainment of her Bachelor’s of Music with a minor in history from McGill University.

Highlights of her 2023/24 season include a two month-long residency at the Marlboro Music Festival, an appointment as an Opera Prelude Young Artist, an appearance in the semi-chorus of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the London Symphony Orchestra, two concerts with the Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Islington Choral Society, and Carmina Burana with Amchor.

Her recent roles include the Parrot in new opera Plaything (Opera America/Musique 3 Femmes), Madame in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Artemisia in The Rape of Artemisia, Mary in Street Scene (Opera McGill), scenes as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and scenes as Alice Ford in Falstaff (Guildhall School). Also experienced on the competition and concert stages, Bridget was awarded Outstanding Canadian Musician at the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in 2024, won first place in Guildhall’s English Song Prize in 2023, and has appeared in concert across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

She has a particular affinity for contemporary music, with notable performances including an appearance with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as the soloist in Gabriela Lena Frank’s song cycle La centinela y la paloma, a performance at the Opera America New Works Forum in New York City, and a solo recital featuring contemporary works addressing themes of climate change and the environment.

Bridget was a 2022 Samling Artist, a 2023 Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellow, and recently spent a week studying at the Oxford International Song Festival.

Bridget is thankful for the generous support she receives from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund, the Josephine Baker Trust, the Art Song Foundation of Canada, the British Columbia Arts Council,  and the Adelaide E. Alexander Memorial Scholarship.