Kaya Giroux is a lyric soprano based in Pittsburgh, PA. This past summer, Kaya sang as a Fleischner Young Artist with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, performing scenes as Marguerite in Faust and Frasquita in Carmen as well as arias from Manon and La Rondine. Most recently, Kaya won first place in the 2022 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition. She is a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she graduated with both University and College Honors and continues to study with world renowned soprano, Professor Maria Spacagna. This past year she also performed Sandrina in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera and La bergére, Une Pastorelle, La Chouette, and Le chauve-souris in Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges as well as scenes as Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Alice Ford in Falstaff with the Carnegie Mellon Opera. In the Fall of 2023, Kaya will begin her graduate studies at San Francisco Conservatory, studying with acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Susanne Mentzer.

While at Carnegie Mellon University, Kaya has performed other roles such as Béatrice in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, Rusalka in The Pastiche Project, and Martha in the premier of On Our Street with Compōs-it Opera Festival. In 2021, Kaya won top prize in the first ever Schmidt Undergraduate Competition. She also received the Sylvie Derdeyn Scholarship in Voice from Carnegie Mellon, placed third in the 2021 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, and participated in the 2021 Milnes VOICE Studio. She is also a 2021 grant recipient from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier through The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. This grant was used to create a hybrid junior recital which combined performances from inside the recital hall and outside in nature.

Originally from Bristol, Rhode Island, Kaya had a love for singing from a young age. This passion led her to attend Jacqueline M. Walsh High School for the Visual & Performing Arts as a vocal performance major studying with soprano Diana McVey. During these four years, Kaya performed at over one hundred and fifty events including voice recitals, gallery showings, baseball games, and even a Forigner concert. She was also fortunate enough to work with great artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Phillip Glass, and Rosanne Cash.

Kaya is currently teaching voice lessons, audition preparation, and music theory to students ages 5 and up at Sunburst School of Music in Pittsburgh, PA. In addition to being passionate about opera and music education, she loves all things pink, Princess Leia, and her partner, Dyer.