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About Dame Emma Kirkby
Hometown
England, UK
Born
1949
Genre
Classical
It was serendipitous that the onset of the early music movement during the 1970s should have coincided with the emergence of Emma Kirkby’s almost made-to-measure voice. Its lightness, purity, and ability to negotiate any musical contour with almost feline gracefulness was the perfect accompaniment to the lighter textures and subtly nuanced style of playing that was increasingly in demand. Born in Camberley in 1949, she studied classics at Oxford, and in 1973 joined the newly formed Taverner Choir, which under Andrew Parrott was radically questioning how the music of the Renaissance and Baroque should be performed. Working with Anthony Rooley’s Consort Of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music, Kirkby cultivated a distinctive empathy with music found in the intimacy of lute song, the serenity of the 12th-century Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, and the invigorating coloratura of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. The songs of Amy Beach have lured her into 20th-century territory, but for many she remains the pioneering doyenne of early music sopranos.
Dame Emma Kirkby has also released music as a member of Cafe Mozart.
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