Trained at the Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio and continues to study with Joy Mammen. Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Prize (1998), she was a BBC New Generation Artist (1999). In 2002 she joined the Komische Oper, Berlin, where she has sung Pamina, Micaëla, Countess Almaviva, Alcina and Mimì. She has appeared with Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera and at Le Châtelet Opera, Paris in the title role of Rodelinda, Lausanne Opera (European debut), Geneva Opera (The Turn of the Screw), English National Opera (Vitellia in LaClemenza di Tito) and at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center (US debut) under such conductors as Mackerras, Bickett, Christie, Haim, Jacobs, Langree, Pappano, Slatkin and Tate. In September 2005 she made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Leonore in Maskarade. Recordings include Merab in Saul with Jacobs and recently two solo recordings, a recital of songs by Strauss, Walter and Marx and a recital of Handel arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for Linn Records both generously supported by an award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for whom she gave recitals in London, Amsterdam and Vienna with Uchida . Future plans include Vitellia for the Opera de Montreal with Labardie, Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Pappano, a return to the Proms for Alexander’s Feast and the Johannes Passion with Haim at the Châtelet. In 2008 she will sing the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Liceu, Barcelona. She is in much demand as a concert and recital singer and is admired for her richly coloured, beautiful voice, sensitive musicianship and dramatic intensity in performance.
Last updated: February 2006
"Distinctive and individual, Emma Bell's soprano voice carries the blend of technical accomplishment and expressive richness required to exploit the musical and emotional variety of Handel's music"
Music Week 10 Sept 2005
"Bell delivers expressive, grief-laden accounts, restraining her big voice with remarkable musical refinement...This is an enjoyable debut from an artist of immense potential"
The Sunday Times, 25 September 2005
Project: Two CDs with Linn Records - Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter and Joseph Marx (Linn CKD238) and Handel Operatic Arias accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Richard Egarr (Linn CKD 252)