Lyyra Ensemble with Greg Zelek, organ

Praised for her “clear soprano” and “tasteful dramatic interpretation”, MaryRuth Miller has appeared throughout North America as a concert soloist and choral artist. Recent performance highlights include solo features with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Upper Valley Baroque, Pegasus Early Music, San Diego Baroque, the Charlotte Master Chorale, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. MaryRuth has sung regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus, New York City’s Clarion Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, and made her debut with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in 2022. She is an alumna of the VOCES8 US Scholars Program.

Cecille Elliott is a multifaceted musician currently based in Portland, Oregon. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, her music journey began with studying violin and viola alongside members of her family, learning and playing orchestral and chamber music with them regularly. Her interests continued expanding to songwriting, film music, theater, and pop music styles. During college in Kalamazoo, Michigan, she shifted her studies from strings to voice, engaging primarily with vocal jazz, classical, and contemporary choral styles.

She can be found performing and collaborating regularly with artists in Portland and around the country. She frequents as a vocalist and a featured artist with Resonance Ensemble. She is a commissioned composer and regularly engages in creative pursuits such as songwriting, arranging, electronic music production, and improvisation. Her artistic passions center on topics such as exploring and cultivating creative and artistic literacy, music as a vehicle of expression, connection and communication, and celebrating the diversity of music and how her instruments find voices around the world across various genres, styles, purposes, cultures, and artistic mediums.

She is incredibly excited to be joining the vocal roster of Lyyra for the 2024-2025 season.

Anna Crumley is a versatile vocalist, arranger, songwriter, session singer, and music director based in the Los Angeles area. She is a soprano for the choral group Tonality, has toured across the country with the Kronos Quartet, and has sung for Disney, Netflix, DC Comics, HBO MAX and National Geographic. Anna holds bachelor’s degrees in both Jazz Studies Voice Performance and in Choral Music Education from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, where she was an Ella Fitzgerald Foundation scholar and a 2022 DownBeat award-winning soloist. She also currently performs as one half a neo-soul inspired guitar-voice duo called DeissMarie, who recently released their debut EP “Dream State”.

Elizabeth Tait is a Houston-based vocalist with roots in choral music. She is currently a staff soprano at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church and soprano with the Houston early music ensemble Harmonia Stellarum. Elizabeth has sung previously with the Houston Chamber Choir, and performed on their Grammy award-winning album, “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works”. Her performance experience ranges from female a cappella, to jazz, to musical theatre. With a degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Education, Elizabeth has taught choral music in Katy, Texas for nine years.

Praised for her sensitivity and style, mezzo-soprano Ingrid Johnson captivates from soaring high notes, to intimate, emotional portrayals that feel unapologetically authentic. As a performer, scholar, and discoverer, Ingrid is always seeking new adventures in music. Ingrid sings regularly with the Colorado Bach Ensemble and St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, Servire, whose “Sing & Serve” mission strives to bring communities together through music, is a Teaching Artist with the VOCES8 Foundation, and is a founding member of the brand new vocal ensemble, Quorum. Other engagements include work with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, Aspen Music Festival with the Seraphic Fire Professional Chorus Institute, Quintessense, Emmanuel Music Inc’s Bach Institute, the JSB Ensemble with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Opera Colorado, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, the Montreal Bach Festival, Boulder Bach Festival, Opera McGill, the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, the Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes, and the Colorado Music Festival.

Vocalist Aryssa Leigh Burrs is hailed for her “rich sound and thoughtful musical ideas” while “transcending vocal styles and genres with flexibility and ease.” An avid choral artist and soloist, she can be seen with The Crossing, Clarion Society, The Thirteen, and Cathedra. Aryssa has been a Resident Artist with Central City Opera and Opera Columbus. Recent engagements include Orfeo/Speranza (Nightsong of Orpheus), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Woman in Sleeve (The Juliet Letters), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Captain (Dog Days), and Mame Dennis (Mame). Aryssa has performed as a 2023 American Traditions Competition Semifinalist and with the Charlotte Symphony, and is also the founder/creator of ALB Produces and the concert experience Identify.