Bridges was raised in Lakewood, Washington. She was the third of four children and grew up listening to Motown music with her parents and singing at church.[2][3] She attended high school at the Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma.[3] Her focus was originally on basketball, but she became interested in singing after taking choir as an elective. After deciding to focus on music, she attended the Manhattan School of Music and then the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for graduate school.[4] While participating in a young artists' program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she was mentored by Renée Fleming.
The COVID-19 pandemic put her on-stage career on hold in favor of virtual programing. After the murder of George Floyd, she proposed and led an online panel of Black opera singers with Los Angeles Opera. She returned to the stage in January 2022 for Palm Beach Opera's production of Carmen.[14]
In March 2022 she performed with the National Philharmonic in composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin's new work "A Knee on the Neck," a tribute to George Floyd. Critic Michael Andor Brodeur wrote that Bridges was "especially gripping" in the performance.[15]
In 2023, she was profiled in an episode of the PBS series American Masters entitled “In the Making”.[16][2] She also reunited with Latonia Moore at San Diego Opera for a concert.
