about Reilly

Reilly Bianchi Nelson is a Canadian soprano known for her dramatic intensity, a warm burnished sound, and fearless storytelling across opera, concert, and cultural stages worldwide.

Woman in white blouse and black skirt leaning against a stone wall.

Reilly's Story

Soprano Reilly Bianchi Nelson performs timeless classics across eras and cultural traditions, from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht to Canzone Napoletana to operatic and contemporary repertoire. Praised by Opera News as "dramatically and vocally stunning" and by Front Row Center for a voice "rising like a phoenix," she made her Jazz at Lincoln Center debut as Nancy Smith in Blind Injustice. Other recent credits include Pacific Opera Victoria, Cincinnati Opera, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Tapestry Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival world premiere of Tenor Overboard.

A Weill/Brecht specialist, Reilly was awarded second place in the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Competition and is a two-time participant in Barbara Hannigan's elite Equilibrium Young Artists program. In January 2026 she premiered Songs of Glass and Iron, a staged Weill recital co-created with composer-pianist Friedrich Heinrich Kern, to a sold-out audience in Toronto, and recently debuted Neapolitan Ice Cream: The Musical at Toronto's Villa Charities to great acclaim.

Upcoming engagements include a Zoomer Radio live-to-air broadcast at ZoomerHall in May 2026 and her Ottawa Chamberfest debut in July 2026 with The Happenstancers, performing Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga and new arrangements by Thierry Tidrow of songs by Mary Dering, in a programme alongside works by Thomas Adès and Oliver Knussen.

Reilly grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Northern Ontario, and is now based in Toronto, where she performs frequently in the city's Italian cultural community alongside her concert and operatic work.