Artist Scoop

English soprano Dame Emma Kirkby

Dame Emma Kirkby has achieved iconic status as one of the world's most renowned Early Music specialists. In 2000 she received the Order of the British Empire, and the same year was included in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She appeared in the top 10 of “The 20 Greatest Sopranos” in a survey run by BBC Music Magazine, and was voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM Radio listeners. A founding member of the Taverner Choir, Emma Kirkby has maintained a long association with the Consort of Musicke, and lutenist Anthony Rooley. She has built long-lasting relationships with chamber groups and orchestras around the world, notably the Academy of Ancient Music, the Freiburger Barockorchester, London Baroque, L’Orfeo (of Linz), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, and Florilegium.

As a prolific recording artist, Emma Kirkby appears on the Hyperion, Decca, Harmonia Mundi USA and BIS labels among others. Repertoire ranges from sequences of Hildegard of Bingen to madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque, and Classical works by Mozart, Haydn and J. C. Bach. Recordings include an anthology, “Classical Kirkby”, devised and performed with Anthony Rooley, Handel Opera Arias and Overtures, Bach Cantatas, Consort Songs by William Byrd with Fretwork, “Honey from the Hive”, songs of John Dowland, with Anthony Rooley, lute songs from Europe with Jakob Lindberg, the first recording of the newly-rediscovered Gloria by Handel with the Royal Academy Baroque Orchestra, and “Chanson d'amour”, songs by the American composer Amy Beach performed with the Romantic Chamber Group of London. Despite all the recording activity, Emma still prefers live concerts, especially the pleasure of performing favourite programmes with colleagues; every occasion, every venue and every audience will combine to create something new from this wonderful repertoire. Emma Kirkby's website is www.emmakirkby.com

Dame Emma Kirkby will perform music by Bach and Mozart in the upcoming Queen of Baroque concert. Be sure not to miss this performance – her first ever in Hong Kong!

See the following youtube links for online performances by Dame Emma Kirkby:

"An Evening Hymn" by Henry Purcell

John Dowland's "Flow my teares" from Honey from the Hive

Aria from J S Bach's Wedding Cantata BWV202 with the Taverner Players

Mozart's "Laudate Dominum"

Emma Kirkby in Concert