[4] While participating in a young artists' program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she was mentored by Renée Fleming.

She names Black opera stars Denyce Graves, Shirley Verrett, Kathleen Battle, and Jessye Norman, at whose funeral she sang, as inspirations.

[5] Bridges sang at the Kennedy Center for the first time after winning a 2012 Marian Anderson Award.

[6] In 2016, she sang the role of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at San Diego Opera, where she met and became friends with soprano Latonia Moore, and she performed at the Los Angeles Opera as Nefertiti in Akhnaten by Philip Glass.

[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.