Born in Belfast, Emma Morwood studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Emma was a major award winner at the RNCM, including the Dame Eva Turner Award and the Claire Croiza Prize for French Song and, since graduating, has worked with many of Europe’s finest orchestras and conductors.
Performance highlights include appearing as soloist with the Prussian Chamber Orchestra in Berlin; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Manchester Philharmonia; Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Ulster Orchestra; Verdi’s Requiem with Altrincham Choral Society and Steven Roberts at the RNCM; Handel’s Messiah at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall with the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union; Royal Festival Hall début in the premier of Gondai’s Rapid Welcoming Descent with The Philharmonia; Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Halsey; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy; Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with the Ulster Orchestra; and Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Northern Sinfonia/Halsey.
Emma thoroughly enjoys giving recitals with her duo partner, Jonathan Fisher. They are both Crear Scholars, having studied with Malcolm Martineau, after which they performed a recital as part of Belfast Festival at Queen’s. Emma and Jonathan also feature on the soundtrack of Oscar nominated film ‘45 Years’.
Opera roles include Minerva and Amore in Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses with Opera Collective Ireland and the Akademie für Alte Musik, conducted by Christian Curnyn; Lila (cover) in David Bruce’s The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Opera North); Diana (cover) in Offenbach’s Orpheus in The Underworld (Scottish Opera/NI Opera); ‘Librarian’ in guerrilla opera Love in a Library (Edinburgh International Festival); Pamina in The Magic Flute (Opera Theatre Company (OTC)); Morgana in Handel’s Alcina (Buxton Festival/OTC); Micaela in Carmen (New Devon Opera); Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Irish tour/OTC); Spirit in Thomas Arne’s Alfred (Classical Opera Company); Elsie in Yeomen of the Guard (Gilbert and Sullivan Society); and the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges (RNCM).
Emma regularly writes and performs in education workshops for Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). In preview workshops for EIF, she has sung the roles of Pamina (Magic Flute); Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte); and Mimi (La Bohème).
Forthcoming engagements include Barber’s Knoxville with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra; Schoenberg String Quartet Number 2 with the Edinburgh Quartet at the Queen’s Hall; and an Irish tour of Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.
As well as being a qualified paraglider pilot, Emma has two young children, Lucas and Orla, and in her spare time she enjoys climbing and swimming.