Emma Bell - About

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 as exciting a criterion 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,

One of BBT’s very first award recipients, Emma Bell is now established as one of Britain’s finest theatrical sopranos. She offers an unrivalled dramatic intensity onstage, capable of conveying raw emotion with remarkable clarity and bringing each of her characterisations convincingly to life. With roles from Mozart’s leading ladies to Wagner’s heroines, she performs at many of the world’s top opera houses, festivals and concert halls.

BBT supported the recording of two recital albums with Linn Records: Songs of Strauss, Walter and Marx; and Handel’s Operatic Arias, as well as funding important practical needs such as a new sound system. Emma participated with her fellow inaugural BBT award winners in an international tour of showcase concerts, led by Mitsuko Uchida, at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna and Queen Elizabeth Hall London in 2004.

Emma was supported with a BBT Award between 2003 and 2006.

For a current biography please visit harrisonparrott.com

Photographs by Paul Foster-Williams