Emma Bell - Biography

Emma Bell received support from BBT between 2003 and 2006, when this page was last updated.  For an up to date biography go to www.harrisonparrott.com

Trained at the Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio and continues to study with Joy Mammen. Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Prize (1998), she was a BBC New Generation Artist (1999). In 2002 she joined the Komische Oper, Berlin, where she has sung Pamina, Micaëla, Countess Almaviva, Alcina and Mimì. She has appeared with Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera and at Le Châtelet Opera, Paris in the title role of Rodelinda, Lausanne Opera (European debut), Geneva Opera (The Turn of the Screw), English National Opera (Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito) and at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center (US debut) under such conductors as Mackerras, Bickett, Christie, Haim, Jacobs, Langree, Pappano, Slatkin and Tate. In September 2005 she made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Leonore in Maskarade. Recordings include Merab in Saul with Jacobs and recently two solo recordings, a recital of songs by Strauss, Walter and Marx and a recital of Handel arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for Linn Records both generously supported by an award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for whom she gave recitals in London, Amsterdam and Vienna with Uchida . Future plans include Vitellia for the Opera de Montreal with Labardie, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Pappano, a return to the Proms for Alexander’s Feast and the Johannes Passion with Haïm at the Châtelet. In 2008 she will sing the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Liceu, Barcelona. She is in much demand as a concert and recital singer and is admired for her richly coloured, beautiful voice, sensitive musicianship and dramatic intensity in performance.

Last updated: February 2006

This is the first award I’ve been given where the purse strings are firmly held in the Trust’s hands. The mere fact that there is a distinguished advisory team behind every penny spent makes this an incredible opportunity to ‘get it right’. This award is devoted to the furthering of careers alone, the money is meant to bear fruit and that is an exciting criteria for accepting it open-armed as any I can think of. The nature of the selection procedure makes this award incredibly special to me. Up until now I’ve always had to apply for assistance or chance my hand in a competition. That I was chosen, seemingly out of the blue, by this panel is an amazing honour and demonstrates the sort of faith people don’t show in you every day of your life.

Photographs by Paul Foster-Williams