“Ruby Hughes’s ‘Nocturnal Variations’ presents a moody, exquisitely realized program. Hughes’s voice is ravishing, her interpretations wonderfully fresh and there’s a real sense of give and take between herself and Middleton. Her ‘Im Abendrot is rapt and introverted….Berg’s Gesenge in which tonality gradually collapses, are genuenly disturbing, and there’s an exceptional performance of Um Mitternacht in which Hughes’s dynamic control, from the whispered opening to the blaze and glory at the close, is breathtaking.”

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Gramophone Magazine

“Great praise is due to all the soloists, who sing several parts, in particular, however to Ruby Hughes, who appears first as an attractive Titania in a long, bright red coat. Her beautiful, clear soprano voice radiates through the hall and almost moves the audience to tears in the 5th act as the role of the black-clothed, lamenting, weeping Laura. For me, this was the vocal climax of the performance.”

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Kulturradio vom RBB (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg)

“Soprano Ruby Hughes moves effortlessly from Schubert’s Nachtstucke to Mahler’s Urlicht and then the sound worlds we’ve just heard (Berg Warm die Lufte & Britten Evening from This way to the tomb), finding moments of heart-stopping beauty as she explores these Nocturnal Variations with pianist Joseph Middleton, who is sensitive to every shift in colour and timbre. I found this a captivating recital.”

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Record Review. BBC Radio 3, Andrew McGregor

“The soprano in Vivaldi's aria from the opera Giustino, in his Motet Salve Regina and Hasse's Alma Redepmtoris is soloist Ruby Hughes. This singer of Welsh heritage combines great style, security, virtuosity and taste. It is no wonder she was selected unanimously to be on the New Generation Artist scheme at the BBC.”

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5* in Klassik heute magazine, Detmar Huting

“Soprano Ruby Hughes was fully on-board with the Requiem’s understated beauty in the delicate Pie Jesu. Though her magnetic stage and presence and exquisite voice put all attention onto her, it did not necessarily make the performance all about her. Hughes had a way of singing that felt as though she was singing to you personally. In her prayer for the dead, she found the balance between both the personal and universal.”

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Bachtrack. Hazel Rowland

“Hughes offered gentle curves and dramas in A charm of lullabies. She bought great clarity and projection and a clear sense of the individual nature of each song, including a delightful rendering, complete with Scottish burr, in the Highland Balou by Burns. The dramatic climax of the concert came in the intense and tragic Canticle II Abraham and Issac. Sung by Hughes and Gilchrist, an Issac and Abraham respectively, who's voices combined in the voice of God with an etheriel richness, this was a highly dramatic and poignant rendering of the story...”

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Bachtrack. Frances Wilson

“Also singing and acting to this high standard was Ruby Hughes who's love for Licida was not reciprocated, even though she offered her life to save his. Throughout her involved portrayal and expressive and varied singing I could not help but think that she would make a superb Elvira in Don Giovanni...”

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Seen and Heard International. Robert Farr.

“But the finest singing of the opening weekend came the next evening, when soprano Ruby Hughes joined McGegan's successor in Gottingen, Laurence Cummings, and his London Handel Players for a programme of cantatas and instumental music. The haughty gaze of the Hanoverian Kings (George II founded Gottingen University)- whose portraits hang behind the stage in the university's main hall-and a tremendous thunderstorm provided a dramatic backdrop for Hughes' sensuous performance of Rameau, Handel and Clerambault.”

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The Gramophone Magazine

“None of the concert's five other Steffani arias could match it for quality: Handel never stole dross. But each vocal item was socked out with equal commitment by the gifted young soprano Ruby Hughes, winner of last year's London Handel Festival Singing Competition. No shrinking violet, this. She squeezed expression from every word. Torment transfigured her face, particularly as Handel's heroine Agripppina...she's made for the opera stage because she sings with such ringing belief.”

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Geoff Brown The Times

“In recent years, the standard of singing has risen consistently with some outstanding young artists emerging to confirm burgeoning careers: Andrew Kennedy, Iestyn Davies and Lucy Crowe to name just three. The winner of both the Adair (First) Prize and the Audience Prize (for once there was no difference of opinion) was clearly not a difficult choice for the jury: young Ruby Hughes, soprano, showed a professionalism and vocal finish in her program which stood out head and shoulders above her rivals. Her larger instrument, with a warm, bright tone that was even through the range, enabled an expressive delivery that drew every bit of drama from her choices from Theodora, Giulio Cesare, Jephtha and Samson' The Jury for this years competition was John Mark Ainsley, Christian Curnyn, Catherine Denley, Gillian Fisher, Michael George and, as Chairman, Ian Partridge.”

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Sue Loder, Opera Today

“The focus of both men's attention as Queen Cleofide was Ruby Hughes, a young soprano with considerable gifts. She has a warm, expressive and easy soprano that gave promise of some weight and power to come, and of all the singers perhaps gave the most finished performance. Articulation, intonation, colour and dynamic were all there and she has an attractive stage presence.”

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Opera Today