Making music accessible and fun

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

Soprano vocalist, actress and teacher Alexandra (Ally) Brigley has planted roots right here in Strathmore this past June with her vocal studio where she hopes to make music accessible and fun.

Brigley is an accredited vocalist with a resume filled with performances ranging from lead soprano in Voir Dire at the Boston Conservatory Opera to Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors – the list goes on. What’s truly impressive about Brigley is her education and dedication to her craft. She has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Alberta Augustana, a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Alberta and most recently she graduated from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a diploma in Opera. 

Brigley grew up in Coronation, Alta. where her love of music began at an early age.

“I came from a very musical family – my dad played in a band and my mom sang in a choir and she always sang in church,” she said. “My mom always said that I was musical – she said that when I was like 10 months old, I would be babbling and singing in my crib.” 

When she was six, she began her vocal training with a voice coach in a nearby town. When that teacher moved, they had to make the hour-long journey to Stettler for lessons sometimes up to three times a week. 

“My family was very encouraging,” she said.

Brigley states that she’s always known that music was the career path that she was destined to travel.  “From the time I was very little in elementary, I knew that music was the only thing that I wanted to do,” said Brigley. 

She has run a successful studio for the past 10 years – this one in Strathmore is her largest with 52 students. 

“I’ve always loved working with kids; I’ve taught since I was in high school,” she said.

Along with her studio, Brigley said she has a passion for performing – so she plans to audition for roles and perhaps book some private singing gigs along the way.

“Because it was Covid I had no performance opportunities over my two years of my Master’s degree,” she said. 

So, when she asked one of her coaches what to do as she felt like she couldn’t launch her operatic career without a bit more experience on her resume. They pointed her in the direction of Boston. She chose the performance diploma.

In Boston she took many courses that she could put to use, while building her career, such as audition techniques and an opera business class so she would know what a good contract would be for example. “(It was) less research, less paper based, more so diving into the actual work,” she said.

While in Boston, Brigley was able to perform in six operas in her two years that she attended the school. “I think that was unique to Boston being able to do that many productions,” she said. “I got to be a the lead of one of the operas when I was there (Boston) – I was the lead soprano role in a new age opera called Voir Dire.

“It was a contemporary English opera and I loved it because it was a small cast and it was sung through where almost everyone was on stage almost the entire time. It was very fast-paced, very involved and it was such a fun and complex production to be a part of.”

Brigley recently hosted an open house concert here in Strathmore on Oct. 4, where she featured her soprano range and introduced the audience to her pianist Terrah Harper and special guest Tynan Thorogood. The concert was well attended and Brigley is considering doing more performances like it.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Brigley’s vocal studio and her impressive resume, you can visit her website (allybrigleymusic.ca).