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 Margaret Dick Award for singing.  She completed her Masters in Performance at the RSAMD in 2007.

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 Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives in Newcastle, Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the Dunedin Ensemble in Edinburgh, Bach's St John Passion in Dundee 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, Mademoiselle Silberklang in Mozart’s The Impresario, Mephistofeles in How the Peace and Reconciliation Money is Spent (a contemporary opera by Peter Morgan Barnes).  Emma also recently appeared in Brian Irvine's new opera Postcards from Dumbworld, commissioned for Wexford Festival Opera and Down Opera Fringe.

Emma particularly enjoys performing new works and recently premiered The Windhover by Chris Hutchings with the Edinburgh Quartet for Glasgow University's Sound Thought Festival.  This March she also performed the soprano solos for Gareth William's choral work Soft Rains, commissioned for the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Clyde Tunnel.  She can also be heard providing the vocals for Series 7 of the BBC's drama Spooks.

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

"Emma Harper, soprano, had a clear and agile voice."

(Bach's St John Passion with the St Andrews Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Edward Caswell, St Andrew's Citizen March 2009)

"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 )