Emma Louise Harper was born and brought up in Ireland. After school, she won a choral scholarship to attend Cambridge University where she sang and recorded as a soloist with both the St Catharine’s College Choir and the Cambridge University Chamber Choir. 

After University Emma completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Performance at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (RSAMD) and won the Academy's prestigious Margaret Dick Award for singing.  She completed her Masters in Performance at the RSAMD last year where she also took part in masterclasses with David Wilson-Johnson and Ann Murray.

Emma is one of the performers on the Live Music Now! programme, set up by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and in addition to her work for Live Music Now!, she has recently performed the soprano solos in Haydn’s Missa Cellensis and Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Vespers, Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio and Schubert's Mass in Ab with the Northern Sinfonia for the opening of the 2008 Carlisle International Music Festival.

On stage, Emma's operatic roles include Armida and Siren in Handel’s Rinaldo, Galatea in Handel's Acis and Galatea, Domestique in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Mademoiselle Silberklang in Mozart’s The Impresario, Mephistofeles in How the Peace and Reconciliation Money is Spent (a contemporary opera by Peter Morgan Barnes) and Second Woman in Music For Regime Change. She also recently performed in Brian Irvine's new opera Postcards from Dumbworld, commissioned for Wexford Festival Opera and Down Opera Fringe with the Brian Irvine Ensemble and conducted by the composer.

Emma has a particular interest in performing contemporary or previously unperformed works and has sung Rutter’s Mass for Children and Jenkin’s The Armed Man with the Northern Sinfonia and given the Scottish premiere of Peter McGarr's The Archaeology of Air with organist Kevin Bowyer (The Herald *****) and the UK Premiere of Zelenka’s Missa dei Filii.

In late September 2008 she undertakes her biggest production so far - a baby with husband James Grossmith - but Emma will be back performing in January 2009. A more comprehensive list of her past and forthcoming work can be found by clicking on the performances tab of this website. Reviews of her previous work are set out below.

Reviews

"The opening Kyrie was beautifully sung, its middle section enhanced by a distinguished vocal quartet, Emma Harper (soprano), Heather Burns (alto), Andrew Dickinson (tenor), and James Birchall (bass). Both in ensemble and individually these four singers made an inspiring contribution not least in the moving Benedictus. "

(Schubert's Mass in Ab with the Northern Sinfonia, conducted by John Robinson, Cumberland News 18 July 2008)

“Emma Harper captures the character of Galatea perfectly with vocal sophistication and comic physicality.”

(Handel’s Acis and Galatea, The Journal, 12 March 2008)

"Emma Harper showed great breath control and dynamism as she proclaimed the good news in the soprano arias."

(Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Cumberland News, 4 January 2008)

"Impressive"

(Bach's Magnificat, Cumberland News, 11 January 2008)

“Young Irish soprano Emma Harper….has an impressive range with a clear, agile coloratura admirably demonstrated in Handel’s Let the Bright Seraphim...her performance was exhilarating and was immediately followed by a sparkling account of Mozart’s Allelujah.  Her duets with Nicky [Spence] were equally appealing.”

(Concert with Nicky Spence, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 29 June 2007)

"Occasionally, one hears a musical event which one knows will live in the memory for a very long time…Emma Harper’s clear soprano was outstanding – she sang with style and elegance and it a particular delight to hear the 12/8 version of Rejoice Greatly…"

(Handel’s Messiah, Westmoreland Gazette, 29 December 2006)

“A resounding ovation for conductor, Simon Wright, and his massed performers was well-deserved…the soloists added much…Emma Harper crowning the choral sound with glory…..”

(Jenkin’s The Armed Man and Rutter’s Mass for Children, 14 April 2006)

“No praise can be too high for...Emma Louise Harper...who sang with great beauty of tone.”

(Handel’s Messiah, Cumberland News, 13 January 2006 )