Emma Kirkby (soprano)

The English soprano Emma Kirkby studied classics at Oxford and received vocal training from Jessica Cash. Originally, she had no expectations of becoming a professional singer. As a classics student at Oxford and then a schoolteacher, she sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups, always feeling most at home in the Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. She joined the Taverner Choir in 1971 and in 1973 began he long association with the Consort of Musicke. She made her London debut in 1974 and then specialized in Early Music. Emma Kirkby took part in the early Decca Florilegium recordings with both the Consort of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music, at a time when most college-trained sopranos were not seeking a sound appropriate for early music instruments. She therefore had to find her own approach, with great help from Jessica Cash in London, and from the directors, fellow singers and instrumentalists with whom she has worked over the years.

Emma Kirkby has become a legend within the concept of music, as beginning not with the singer but with the words; her name is always and above all associated with pure sound. "For two decades Emma Kirkby’s clear, agile voice has been the quintessence of pure sound in the singing of early music. She is still one of the treasures of the world of music” (Toronto Globe and Mail). She appears worldwide with a steadily increasing circle of orchestras and chamber ensembles: the Academy of Ancient Music, London Baroque, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Tafelmusic Toronot and the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montreal. In addition to her work as a soloist, she sings regularly with her duo partner the lutenist Anthony Rooly. Other highlights of her work are chamber concerts and recordings with the Consort of Musicke.

To date, she has made well over a hundred recordings of all kinds, from sequences of Hildegard of Bingen to madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque, and works of Mozart and Haydn. Her most recent recordings include a second volume of Handel opera arias for Hyperion, Bach wedding cantatas for Decca and Christmas music by Scarlatti and Bach with London Baroque for BIS. In 1999 Emma was voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM Radio listeners, and in November 2000 she received the Order of the British Empire.

Despite all the recording activity, Emma Kirkby still prefers live concerts, especially the pleasure of repeating programmes with colleagues; every occasion, every venue and every audience will combine to create something new from this wonderful repertoire. With her intelligence, her uniquely beautiful voice and her brilliant performing technique, her concerts always become an unforgettable experience. .