Ruby Hughes - Biography

Ruby Hughes was supported by BBT between 2014 and 2018.  For an up-to-date biography go to www.rayfieldallied.com.

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

She made her debut at Theater an der Wien as Roggiero in Tancredi conducted by René Jacobs, returning as Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She has sung major roles at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Buxton Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, London Handel Festival, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, Musicfestspiel Potsdam, Schwetzinger Festspiel, Scottish Opera, Opera de Toulon, as well as in Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of St Matthew Passion at the National Theatre.

Further Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Symphony Orchestras, Cheltenham, La Folle Journée, Gent Ode Gand, Göttingen, Lockenhaus, Lucerne, Manchester International, Marlboro, Nurmberg, Spitalfields, and West Cork.

Ruby has broadcast and recorded extensively under many leading conductors. She is a passionate recitalist and works closely with the pianists Julius Drake & Joseph Middleton. In 2016 she released her debut solo recital disc Nocturnal variations with pianist Joseph Middleton for the Champs Hill label, named BBC Music Magazine’s choice of the month. A champion of women composers, she recently recorded Heroines of Love and Loss which was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine, and was awarded a Diapason D’or. In 2018 she released her BBT-supported disc for Chandos Records with the OAE and Laurence Cummings dedicated to Giulia Frasi, Handel’s lyric muse.

Ruby participated in BBT’s 20th-anniversary celebrations at Bold Tendencies, Peckham with the Multi-Story Orchestra and Young Creatives, June 2023.

The Borletti-Buitoni award has been an invaluable support for me. It has enabled me to continue having regular singing lessons, vocal and language coaching.

I have been been working with baroque music specialist David Vickers, researching and discovering some wonderful arias written by Handel, Smith, Arne, Hayes and Ciampi, all for Guilia Frasi.

With BB Trust financial support I am planning to record a CD paying homage to Frasi, together with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Laurence Cummings, for Chandos records. This project would never have been possible had it not been for the generous support of the Trust.

Photographs by Barry Hale; Simon Weir