Soprano Lauren Bryant-Monk’s love affair with opera started at just seven years old when the Canadian Opera Company came to visit her school. After a day learning about opera, she marched up to her mother and announced “I want to be an Opera Singer!” She is currently pursuing her Masters in Music Performance and Literature at the Western University, studying with John MacMaster. A graduate of the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University, Lauren received a BA Combined Honours in Music and Early Modern Studies while studying with Lucy Hayes Davis.

Her interest in early music led Lauren to write her undergraduate honours thesis on the humanism of the Florentine Camerata and the origins of opera in the Renaissance under the Supervision of Dr. Jennifer Bain. Her studies led her to see the similarities between early music and contemporary music, and so she discovered her passion for performing new compositions. This led to partnerships with young composers in Halifax, where she premiered Michael Robson’s Delirium Amoris for Soprano and Viola in 2012. In August 2014, she created the role of Adèle Hugo in La Belle Adèle by Sophie Dupius with Vocalypse Production’s Opera from Scratch. Other recent performances include Jenny Hildebrand in Street Scene, Fortuna and Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, and Exsultate, Jubilate with the Halifax Music Co-op.

Lauren was born in Toronto, but she spent five years living in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she fell in love with the city, its friendly people, and the vibrant community of artists. Because of all this, Lauren now considers Halifax to be her home. When she is not singing, she can be found playing too many videogames, camping, hanging out with her cat Max, and trying to keep up with the editorial schedule for The Starving Soubrette, her lifestyle blog for musicians at www.starvingsoubrette.com