Ella Taylor

Soprano

INTRODUCTION

Described in the Guardian as having ‘a voice of tempered steel, wrapped in a warm velvet cloak’ Ella Taylor is a soprano with a passion for performing contemporary music and works by women and gender non-conforming artists. Winner of the Second Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier awards, they are a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.

Highlights in 2024/2025 included Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos at Staatsoper Hamburg and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for Opera North at Nevill Holt. Concert work included the Studio Ghibli Concert Tour Final with Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Tokyo Dome and Classic FM Hall of Fame with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals at Oxford International Song Festival, SongEasel and ‘Song at Wolfson’.

Recent engagements have included The Activist in the première of Ellen Reid’s The Shell Trial for Dutch National Opera, as well as a return to The Royal Opera, London, as Fourth Maid Elektra. As a regular collaborator with Joe Hisaishi, they have performed Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki in arenas around Europe, as well as making their Tokyo debut last year performing Hisaishi’s The End of the World with Future Orchestra Classics at Suntory Hall. This has since been released as a live recording on Deutsche Grammophon. They have performed both Mahler Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4 with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Bold Tendencies Festival) and Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra respectively. For the Bold Tendencies Festival, they have also performed Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

Ella Taylor is a keen collaborator and recitalist, making a dedicated effort to work with and perform works by people underrepresented in classical music, as well as working with composers and librettists in the creation of new, LGBT+ focused work. They have given talks about navigating a career as a trans opera singer for various companies and magazines including the Royal Opera House Engender Festival, Place and Space: a TECHNE student-led conference, and Opera Now. A film with Trans Voices Choir (part of London Contemporary Voices), of which Ella is a founding member, has been released on Guardian films. They were also a soloist at the inaugural Classical Pride at the Barbican. Their recordings and broadcasts further include Joe Hisaishi’s The End of the World with Future Orchestra Classics on DG CD and This Classical Life with BBC Concert Orchestra for BBC Radio 3.

During 2026 / 2027, Ella Taylor returns to Dutch National Opera to sing Lidion in Shostakovich’s Cherry Town and their current engagements further include creating Blaze in Lucy Armstrong’s Spark for Glyndebourne, First Wood Sprite Rusalka with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Voice of the Falcon / Guardian of the Threshold Die Frau ohne Schatten at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Soprano 2 in J. S. Bach’s B Minor Mass for Waterperry Opera Festival, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for The Academy of St Mary le Bow, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Opus 48, Soprano 1 in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Magna Sinfonia, Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes for London Song Festival, Avond von de Filmmuziek at Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, and AFAS Dome, Antwerp and Proms at the Lake: One Hundred Years of Nature with English Chamber Orchestra.

Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.

REVIEWS

Fiordiligi: Così fan tutte / Opera North at Nevill Holt Festival 2025

“As the steadfast lover whose rock-like devotion melts into human flesh-and-blood, Ella Taylor’s mighty soprano is vocally forceful and dramatically compelling. “Come scoglio” becomes a fizzing cameo of defiance, while Taylor’s later convulsions of duty and desire modify their charismatic stage presence with an aching vulnerability.”

The Arts Desk

“Ella Taylor’s Fiordiligi is particularly fine in their two formidable arias and for their ability to command expressive softness as well as strength.”

The Guardian

“Ella Taylor as Fiordiligi gave some of the most exciting moments of the evening, with their ‘Per pietà’ a particular highlight, unlocking a new dimension to the character of Fiordiligi.”

Opera Now

“Ella Taylor is a terrific singer, very capable of delivering a gripping story. A graduate of the National Opera Studio, a prize-winner at the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Taylor delivered the most famous aria in Così fan tutte, ‘Come scoglio’ (‘Like a rock’) with great confidence, meeting all the technical demands.”

Seen and Heard International

“Ella Taylor delivers sensitive and expressive accounts of their big arias and is a characterful stage personality.”

The Times

The Composer: Ariadne auf Naxos / Staatsoper Hamburg 2025

“Ella Taylor, a Composer of vibrant ardour.”

Altamusica

“Ella Taylor sang The Composer with luminous tone and expressive phrasing.”

Opera

“…increasingly authoritative, Ella Taylor gave “Musik ist eine heilige Kunst” particular poignancy.”

Opera Today

“As the Composer, Ella Taylor is a soprano who brings vocal and dramatic joy.”

Opera Online

“…one of the most interesting Composers of recent years…a strong, magnificently projected, very expressive voice with impeccable phrasing and an individual, very striking presence.”

Wanderer

The Activist: The Shell Trial / Dutch National Opera 2024

“Ella Taylor as The Activist stands out among a well balanced cast.”

Bachtrack

Joe Hisaishi: Symphonic Concert / OVO Arena Wembley 2023

“…the heart-soaring soprano vocals of Ella Taylor…”

The Telegraph

Caroline Shaw: Is a Rose / Platoon 2023

“Ella Taylor’s gorgeous voice reaches new heights in the bonus track, from Season Two of The White Lotus.”

BBC Music Magazine (5*)

Tebaldo: Don Carlo / The Royal Opera 2023

“Spritely Ella Taylor (Tebaldo) flits protectively around Elizabeth, their tone positively birdlike.”

London Unattached

“Ella Taylor, debuting at The Royal Opera, was a bright Tebaldo…”

Opera

“…there is excellent support from Ella Taylor as Tebaldo.”

Opera Online

“As Tebaldo, Elizabeth’s Page, Ella Taylor made a strong impression…”

Seen and Heard International

Belinda / Second Witch: Dido and Aeneas / Ustinov Studio of Theatre Royal Bath

“In a uniformly strong cast, pride of place goes to the Belinda of Ella Taylor, a clarion soprano…”

Bath Echo

“Blessed with a strong, distinctive voice, the all-out star of the evening is soprano Ella Taylor…”

Broadway World

“The vivid-toned soprano Ella Taylor as Belinda / Witch had arresting stage presence and sang with intensity as they, by turn, supported and confronted the bewildered Dido.”

Opera

“Ella Taylor shines in the contrasts of the dual Belinda / Second Witch role: confidante one moment, spitting horrors the next.”

The Telegraph

“Best of all was Ella Taylor’s Belinda, whose soprano voice glints and gleams, and who makes us feel, acutely, their despair at Dido’s death.”

The Times

“…an outstanding performance from soprano Ella Taylor as Belinda…”

Wiltshire Times

Fiordiligi: Così fan tutte / Wild Arts

“Outstanding in a strong cast was the rising star soprano Ella Taylor as redoubtable Fiordiligi, a voice of tempered steel, wrapped in a warm velvet cloak.”

The Observer

Gerda: The Paradis Files / Graeae 2022

“…Ella Taylor in the role of Gerda was a warm and sustaining presence.”

Opera

“…a witty Ella Taylor…”

The Stage

Alicia Jane Turner: Tell me when you get home / London Sinfonietta 2022

“The sung lines, spoken passages and abstract vocalising were delivered with straightforward directness, reaching an almost overwhelming intensity towards the end of the piece…”

Evening Standard

The Cock / Innkeeper’s Wife: The Cunning Little Vixen / CBSO Tour 2021

“Ella Taylor gives their all as The Cock and The Innkeeper’s Wife with their strong, clear soprano.”

Olyrix

“Ella Taylor’s precision is incontestable.”

Opera Online

Paris: Paride ed Elena / Bampton Classical Opera 2021

“Taylor proved more than equal to the demands of style and technique, singing with a beautifully even tone – strong and smooth across the registers, and with a shining glow at the top – fully expressive of Paris’ passion.”

Opera

“Ella Taylor made a bold and determined Paris, their firm voice charting a lithe and lively line.”

Opera Now (5 stars)

“Ella Taylor proved near ideal as Paris, they brought a bright flexibility to the vocal line and allowed a sense of tragic intensity to gradually build. Their solo which concluded Act Two was terrific, and it was simply part of a whole, we never doubted Paris’ seriousness or passion.”

Planet Hugill

“…their voice is bright, again notably clear in diction and responsive to nuance.”

Seen and Heard International

Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2020 / Henry Wood Hall, London / Opera Today

“Taylor confirmed an impressive interpretative range in Fiordiligi’s ‘Teremari! … Come scoglio’ from Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Both outer indignance and inner feeling were apparent in the compelling recitative, and it’s rare to hear the extreme vocal leaps as cleanly delivered as this, even from the most established singers. Taylor has a hearty lower register and a glowing top; in between the tone is even and controlled. Ornaments and trills were spot on, and the coloratura runs left one in no doubt of the soprano’s stamina and precision. The tone was never compromised by the virtuosity and they remained musically unruffled throughout.”

The Creation / Sheffield Bach Choir

“Of the vocal soloists, outstanding was the soprano Ella Taylor…an enviable maturity of voice and musicianship.”

The Church Times

Momentum: Our Future, Now Recital with Roderick Williams

“Taylor had a beautifully rounded tone and some irresistible vibrato…”

The Argus

“Ella Taylor’s bright soprano convincingly conveyed the sensuously apprehensive ecstasy in ‘Ganymed’ and the naïve indignation of ‘Die Forelle…”

The Latest