​​​Ruby Nightingale Castillo is an Australian Soprano and composer based in Westchester, New York.
Most recently she performed “Warm Airs Whispering”, a duet recital performed in New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico, including repertoire by Berg, Aperghis, Heggie, and Fauré. She has sung as a Young Artist with Nightingale Opera Theatre in Ohio, the National Opera Intensive of Canada-based Against the Grain Theatre, and the Westchester Summer Voice Institute in New York City. She developed new work and collaborated as a Britten-Pears Young Artist in the Composition, Alternative Performance, and Performance Art program.
Performance highlights in the UK include Frank Denyer's “The Fish that became the Sun” with Rubythroat ensemble at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s large-scale composition Award and premiere recorded by BBC Radio), Trinity Laban’s opera scenes as La Fée in Massenet's “Cendrillon”, Agathe in Weber's “Der Freischütz” with Opera at Bearwood, and Sancho Panza in “Don Quixote visits the Duchess” by Boismortier with Richmond Opera. She has performed as a soloist in “GrandMother” by Esmeralda Conde Ruiz at Union Chapel, and in Southbank Centre's “Women of the World Festival”. She presented a solo recital of contemporary repertoire including her own song cycle “we will part” for voice, loop pedal, and harmonium, at The Swiss Church in London.
Highlights of ensemble engagements in London include “Imagine”, a vocal and video collaboration between Esmeralda Conde Ruiz and Yoko Ono, and CLOD Ensemble’s performance at Somerset House's unveiling of Ai Wei Wei's flag honouring the 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ruby has sung as a member of the Bronx Opera Chorus, placed first in the William Haralson Vocal Competition in New York City, was a semifinalist in the Premiere Foundation Opera Competition, and has performed her own composed and improvised work in Hong Kong, New York, and London. In 2019, she was the winner of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association's Malcom Rose Award in London.
Ruby maintained a private voice studio in London and then New York, from 2018-2023. She has also enjoyed teaching at the Eisman Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at Queens College, and volunteering in arts capacities with Women for Refugee Women in London. Ruby made her conducting debut at London’s Normansfield Theatre in 2018 as Assistant Music Director of Richmond Opera.
Ruby earned her Bachelor of Music with Honors at The Hartt School of Music and Dance, performing the Queen of the Night in Mozart's “The Magic Flute”, Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's “Street Scene”, and Bird in Ned Rorem's “Fables”. She earned her Master of Music with Distinction at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK.
Ruby lives in Westchester with her husband, Mark, and their Raffi-loving toddler. Outside of music, she enjoys sewing, practicing yoga, and a good lamb roast.