Biography
Ruth Blythman is a festival director, arts consultant and soprano driven to create work that fosters a more inclusive, equitable, and inspired society.
She holds a Business degree (majoring in Marketing and minoring in Entrepreneurship) and a classical music degree from the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She trained under scholarship at Finland's Sibelius Academy specialising in operatic repertoire. She then spent 18 months in Europe focussing on Opera Performance and Cultural Management funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Partnerships Australia. This opened the door to training, performance, and, research with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (United Kingdom), Komische Oper, Staatsoper Berlin, Pirahna Arts, Radialsystem (Germany), Classical Next (The Netherlands), Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (Italy), IETM (Belgium) and Hietasaari Festival, and Collarte Oy (Finland).
In 2013, Ruth co-founded Australian production house Release Creative with Zac Tyler. The company has created 526 jobs for Australian creatives, produced 189 productions and events all of which were experienced by over 110,000 audience members. Producing highlights with her company include Barossa Contemporary, Disco Wonderland: 54 Reasons to Party (with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and Queensland Symphony Orchestra), Australasian tours of three separate productions for Sven Ratzke (German/Dutch Cabaret Artist) in major performing arts venues and festival in every state in Australia and three cities in New Zealand and the 27 Club which continues to tour throughout Australia.
Performing highlights include Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, performing Silver Rain: Illuminated Opera to 15,000 people at St Paul's Cathedral and making her Melbourne Festival debut as a featured soloist in Percy Grainger’s, Random Round. Ruth co-produced and performed in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater under Erin Helyard's baton and sang Ravel's Shéhérazade for the Australian Ballet Company's Murphy with Orchestra Victoria.
In addition to her work as a performer and producer, Ruth was Company Manager for the contemporary dance company, KAGE from 2014-2017. KAGE toured rurally, regionally, nationally and internationally during her time with the company. Here, she developed a passion for presenting high-quality performances to regional audiences and supporting emerging creative artists anchored by community impact.
Ruth has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Rae Banger Award, the Walter Kirby Singing Scholarship, the Charles Melton Performing Arts Scholarship, the Frances Quinn Arts Award for Excellence in Performance, the Melbourne Global Scholars Award, State Leadership Award, the Governor General’s Certificate of Merit and was a finalist in the Neapolitan Masters Competition (Italy) and Herald Sun Aria (Australia).
In 2019, Ruth became an inaugural member of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’s Engender Network. She was the Festival Director of state funded events Barossa Contemporary in 2021 and Barossa Vintage Festival in 2023.
Ruth now divides her time between freelance performing, festival programming and project management working with local, state, and federal governments.