Emma Kirkby
|
Dame Emma Kirkby DBE |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Carolyn Emma Kirkby 26 February 1949 Camberley, Surrey, England, UK |
| Occupation | Classical soprano in |
| Years active | 1971 |
| Website | www |
Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE (born 26 February 1949) is an English soprano and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She has sung on over 100 recordings.
Her entry in The Grove Book of Opera Singers (2008) reads:
Her uncommonly pure, crystalline voice, deployed with minimal vibrato, her natural declamation, agile coloratura and her sensitivity to words have been widely admired by interpreters of early, Renaissance and Baroque music and have served as a model for many specialists in this repertory.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Kirkby was educated at Hanford School and Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset. Her father was Geoffrey John Kirkby, a Royal Navy Officer.
Initially, Kirkby had no expectations of becoming a professional singer. As a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford and a schoolteacher she sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups, notably Schola Cantorum of Oxford, preferring the Renaissance and Baroque repertoires. As her voice was not particularly large, Kirkby's potential as a soloist was not immediately recognised.
Kirkby was a founding member of the Taverner Choir, and in 1973 began her long association with the Consort of Musicke. She took part in the early Decca Florilegium recordings with both the Consort of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music, at a time when most college-trained sopranos were not developing a vocal sound appropriate for early music. She found her own approach, with help from Jessica Cash in London, and from the directors, fellow singers and instrumentalists with whom she worked.
...
Wikipedia