| Emma Johnson | |
| Background: | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth Date: | 1966 5, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Barnet, Hertfordshire, England |
| Genre: | Classical |
| Instrument: | Clarinet |
| Years Active: | 1984–present |
| Label: | ASV Records Universal Classics and Jazz Naxos Records Nimbus Records |
Emma Johnson (born 20 May 1966) is a British clarinettist, who was appointed MBE for services to music in 1996.
In 1984, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, playing one of Crusell's clarinet concertos in the televised final,[1] and won the Bronze Award representing Britain in the subsequent European Young Musician Competition. She also won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1991 which led to her New York City recital debut at Carnegie hall. She has become one of the UK's biggest selling classical artists, having sold over half a million discs sold worldwide.[2]
Emma Johnson was born on 20 May 1966 in Barnet in Hertfordshire. She attended Newstead Wood School for Girls, Orpington and Sevenoaks School, learning the clarinet with John Brightwell. She joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of 15. In 1984, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year title, performing Crusell's Second Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Bryden Thomson. She represented Britain at the European Young Musician Competition where she was awarded the Bronze Award. She made her London debut at the Barbican Hall, playing the Mozart Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra on 10 February 1985.[3] She chose not to go to music college, but in 1985 matriculated to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where she studied English, then Music. While there, she had clarinet lessons with Sidney Fell and Jack Brymer. During this period, she combined her studies with a burgeoning professional career, appearing regularly in concerts in Britain and abroad. By the time she was in her third year at university she had performed at all the principal concert halls in Britain and with most of the professional orchestras.[3] She had also made many television appearances[3] and signed an exclusive recording contract with ASV Records, for whom she recorded more than a dozen discs.
Emma Johnson is one of the few clarinettists to have established a busy career as a solo performer which has taken her to major European, American and Asian venues as well as to Africa and Australasia.Her recording of sonatas by Brahms and Mendelssohn with John Lenehan was described as "definitive...triumphant...a landmark disc" in The Observer and follows on from her classical chart-topping successes: Voyage and the Mozart Album on the Universal Label. Her recording of the Finzi Concerto was nominated for a Gramophone award and Pastoral was chosen as CD of the Year by BBC Music Magazine.[4]
In 2016 Johnson became the first female alumna to have a portrait unveiled at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was the first woman to be made an honorary fellow of the college in 1999.[5]
In 2020 Emma Johnson was awarded the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music by the Musicians' Company in the City of London.[6]
Johnson is a published composer too and during lockdown she wrote a clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, inspired by a need to express something in music about the climate crisis. Its first performance with a handpicked team of like-minded musicians, the Orchestra for the Environment, was a triumph and has led to many more performances throughout the UK.[7] Emma Johnson’s compositions and arrangements have been published by Chesters and Faber Music. Her composition for clarinet and choir, Songs of Celebration, was recently performed in Dublin, London and Tokyo and a series of new works have been published by Queen’s Temple Publishing.[8]