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The English soprano, Emma Brain-Gabbott, was born and educated in Cheltenham, before going on to read music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where she was also a choral scholar. She studied singing with David Lowe. She is currently studying with Andrew Watts and has also taken part in master-classes with Noelle Barker and James Bowman. She has also studied George Frideric Handel and Puccini with Dame Felicity Lott.
Since embarking upon her singing career, Emma Brain-Gabbott has taken part in a wide range of musical activities, ranging from pop (she features on albums by such artists as the Pet Shop Boys, Take That, Bjork and Jarvis Cocker), West End shows, TV and film soundtrack projects (including Merlin and the latest Tim Burton / Johnny Depp film) through to opera and oratorio.
Emma Brain-Gabbott works extensively as a soloist in Britain and abroad. Her wide oratorio repertoire includes Verdi’s Requiem, Edward Elgar’s The Kingdom, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Orff Carmina Burana and W.A. Mozart’s C Minor Mass, among others. She made her Proms debut with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and rejoined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as soloist in the first recording of Julian Anderson's Four American Songs. Other recent oratorio work includes W.A. Mozart's C Minor Mass in London, J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) in Sweden, Haydn's Nelson Mass in Tewkesbury Abbey, and solos in the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg's Graffiti at the Festival Hall. Future engagements include tours of France and Spain with The Sixteen, concerts in Versailles with the Dunedin Consort, and J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) in Leipzig with The English Concert. The autumn also sees a trip to China to perform Purcell's Fairy Queen, and a tour of the USA with Tenebrae.
Emma Brain-Gabbott also enjoys smaller scale vocal ensemble work, performing, touring and recording with such groups as The Sixteen, BBC Singers, Academy of Ancient Music, I Fagiolini, European Voices, Polyphony, Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Finzi Singers and The English Concert. With the latter she has toured extensively in recent months to venues in Spain, Turkey, Germany, Austria and Japan, performing J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) both as a soloist and as a chorus member. Other projects have included solos for BBC Wales' broadcast of L. Bernstein's Mass, and ongoing project of recording Haydn's Masses with Richard Hickox and performances of J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232), George Frideric Handel's Messiah and Wagner's Parsifal in the BBC Proms.
On the stage Emma Brain-Gabbott has sung in Luigi Dallapiccola's The Prisoner with English National Opera (ENO) and played the role of Pride in the première of Will Todd's Damned and Divine for the ENO Studio. She also took the role of Leila in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Warwick and Symphony Hall Birmingham. She also sang in Peter Grimes in Salzburg, under Sir Simon Rattle.
Future engagements include tours of Spain and Germany with the Choir & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, performing J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244), W.A. Mozart's C Minor Mass with Ashford Choral Society, G.F. Handel's Messiah with Cheltenham Choral Society, and recordings of Aida and Turandot for Opera Rara. |
