Emma Johnson is one of the few clarinettists to have established a busy international career as a soloist. Emma performs in Europe, the USA and the Far East, as well as in Africa and Australia. In Britain she has achieved great popularity, regularly playing to sold-out concert halls.

Emma began to study the clarinet at the age of nine. In 1984, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition televised throughout Europe, in 1991 she was a winner of the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York. She studied Music and English at Cambridge University and was recently the first woman to be awarded an honorary fellowship at Pembroke College. Emma has given masterclasses all over the world and was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music. Emma was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 1996.

Emma Johnson has appeared with many leading orchestras including the London Symphony, The Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Hallé, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Phoenix Symphony and the Netherlands Philharmonic in repertoire, which includes over forty different concertos.

A new development in Emma's career has seen her being invited not only to direct from the clarinet, but also to conduct orchestras; the most recent example being a highly acclaimed concert with the London Mozart Players. Emma is also in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, collaborating with quartets such as the Takacs and Lindsay. She is director of her own chamber ensemble, 'Emma Johnson and Friends', a versatile wind and string group which recently recorded the Mozart and Weber Clarinet Quintets for ASV.

Emma has recently signed an exclusive new recording contract with Universal Classics & Jazz. Emma has also recorded extensively for ASV, selling well over a quarter of a million discs worldwide. Details of these recordings as well as her concert schedule are available on Emma's website www.emmajohnson.co.uk. 'Encore', Emma's book of arrangements and compositions for clarinet and piano is published by Chester Music.

A frequent broadcaster on both radio and television, Emma's appearances have ranged from Wogan, Cleo Laine and Friends and Jim'll Fix It to the Yehudi Menuhin Charity Gala, a late night solo recital and BBC Radio 3 Artist of the Week. The theme composed by Paul Reade for the Victorian Kitchen Garden television series became very popular and is featured on Emma's best-selling CD 'Encores'.

As well as the traditional repertoire, Emma takes an interest in contemporary composers. Her recording of Michael Berkeley's challenging Clarinet Concerto received widespread critical acclaim. John Dankworth has written several jazz-inspired works for Emma including a clarinet concerto premiered at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recent and forthcoming engagements include appearances across the UK in recital and with the City of London Sinfonia, Philharmonia Orchestra, Storioni Trio, Johnson/ Lloyd Webber/ Lill trio and recitals in Europe and the USA. Emma featured as a soloist in the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Barbican in July and in the coming months will be touring as both soloist and conductor with the London Mozart Players, Camerata Salzburg and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Emma Johnson plays an instrument by the English clarinet maker Peter Eaton.

'VOYAGE' the new album from EMMA JOHNSON is in all good record shops. Catalogue number: 986 618-0

Contact details and further information

E-mail Hazard Chase

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