Ryan grew up all over the country, moving from Massachusetts at five to Santa Monica, California, where she began formal training to continue the pianistic education her father had started before he died. From California, she moved to Houston to start sixth grade, at which point she joined the Lanier choir and attended rehearsals of the Rice Univeristy Chorale. The next year, its director invited her to come out from under the piano and sing with the Chorale, and she has been ever since. Seventh grade was also the start of her string education, though she hasn't played the cello much since then. Ryan was accepted to the High School for Performing and Visual Arts for voice, and began composing the summer of her freshman year in order to have an opera that would be acceptable for students to perform, since the instructors deemed all of her suggestions too strenuous. She has since diversified. Currently a voice/linguistics major at Rice University, she plans to take composition at some point and finish the opera. Some of Ryan's other interests are fire, reading, linguistics, English, ancient history, metalworking, drawing, metacognition, gems, and sculpture. She intends someday to be an air-conditioned gypsy, but also enjoys hiding in tunnels.