Kayla Thomas

Biography

Hi everyone! My name is Kayla and I am in my second year student studying at the Manhattan School of Music. I am a soprano under the direction of Ruth Golden. I am originally from a small town in New Jersey, where our music education was very run down. I had to fight alongside my directors to make music heard in our schools.

I have a love and passion for learning and I hope to one day hold a position in arts management/administration or teaching. Singing is so life changing, and I would like to do everything I can to bring the gift of singing to as many people as I can.

Being in the city the last few years has really been a dream come true. Throughout my time at MSM I have learned so much. One of which my skills of overall reliability and event planning. During this school year I had the privilege to put together and sing in a recital featuring the marriage of Clara and Robert Schumann. My colleagues and I sang the lieder and read excerpts from their diaries and letters in chronological order with the songs. We have since gotten opportunities to put on this program outside of school professionally.

I am currently the Chair of Advocacy for the MSM Womxn's group. Feminism in music is a huge passion of mine, and we have done lots of work as an organization to help create outreach for womxn, and a safe place within our workplace. I also work with the patron services at MSM. These last few years I have been apart of various solo recitals, scenes programs and operas around NYC. I have also gotten the chance to speak to amazing talented people from some of the biggest opera companies in the world through internships. Finally, I have had the chance to musically work with people such as: Timothy McDevitt, Chun-Wei Kang, Ruth Golden, Ashley Putnam, Kathryn Labouff, Nils Neubert, Glenn Morton and more.