Born and raised in West Hartford, CT, Talya Smilowitz completed her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where she received the Lucrezia Bori grant to study abroad in Florence, Italy. Following her studies at Juilliard, Talya completed her Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music.

Talya Smilowitz performs frequently in solo engagements in various musical styles (jazz, classical, world music, broadway/theater, folk and blues) around the tri-state area with several different established artists. She has performed the role of Suzanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Le Princesse in L'Enfant et les Sortileges, the Soprano role in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Morgana in Handel's baroque opera, Alcina. Additionally, Talya has performed in many staged operatic and musical theater scenes during her schooling and at summer vocal programs: Boston University's Tanglewood Institute and The University of Miami in Salzburg, Austria. 

Other venues have included Alice Tully Hall as part of the Wednesdays at One concert series, Lola Lounge, Symphony Space, The Bushwick Starr, Bar East, Gregory Singer Fine Violins, Waltz Astoria, The Gershwin Hotel, Makor, 78th Street Theater Lab, Equinox sports clubs, Caffe Vivaldi's Sunday Night Jazz series, The National Arts Club, The JCC Manhattan, The Jewish Heritage Museum, the Society for Ethical Culture in NY where she performed with violinist Mark O'Connor, Yankee Stadium, Citifield, and many more well known venues. Talya has performed at various synagogues around the US and Europe, including B'nai Jeshurun in NYC, Congregation Da'at Elohim in NYC, Temple Israel in Miami, Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, Tikvoh Chadosha in Hartford, Hillel at Trinity College in Hartford, Le Terrasse Victor in Bordeaux France, Arcachon Synagogue in Arcachon, France, Fleg Centre in Marseille, France, Synagogue Or Aviv in Marseille, France and Copernic Synagogue in Paris, France among others. She was also a regular performer with the esteemed Ten O'Clock Classics series from 2002 to 2009. Other recent engagements have included a world premiere performance at Carnegie Hall and a recording of a new musical currently in development.

Talya participated in the Equity staged reading of Out of the Apple Orchard with the Mesaper Theater as well as the National Yiddish Folksbeine Theater's Off-Broadway workshop of Shlomo, The House of Love and Prayer. Talya was later featured in the Off-Broadway Musical Shlomo, a new musical about the life and music of the later Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Talya has performed around Miami, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York for various organizations including UJA, JNF, Meretz USA, Israel Bonds Benefits, The Abraham Fund and the Jewish Federation. In December 2008, she completed a concert tour all over France covering Paris, Toulouse, Marseille, Bourdoux, and Arcachon. In past years, she has toured all throughout Europe (Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria) singing Jazz. For part of December 2009 and January 2010, Talya toured and performed all over China with the Manhattan Symphonie Orchestra, under the direction of Conductor Gregory Singer. She sang operatic arias, popular songs as well as Broadway Showtunes. Over the course of three weeks, she sang in large beautiful concert halls in nine different Chinese cities: Shanghai, Tainjin, Beijing, Harbin, Kunming, Ningbo, Nanchang, Wuhan, Hang Zhou. 

Talya has served as a Cantorial Soloist at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford, NY and is now currently the Cantorial Soloist at The Jewish Congregation of Brookville. At the JCB, she is given creative liberty to compose new melodies for different Jewish prayers, psalms and poems. She will frequently sing her own original melodies at Shabbat services and other Synagogue events. She also collaborates with several different musicians and brings a wealth of musical talent to the Synagogue. 

Talya is also a proud member of Actors' Equity. She plays the Flute, a little piano and is now studying the guitar. She loves many styles of dancing; especially Salsa, African, Belly, Broadway and Jazz. She enjoys speaking in different languages, as well as different accents. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and enjoys teaching voice, acting/performance coaching and Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutoring.