Emma Johnson & Gregory Drott

Emma Johnson (clarinet)

Gregory Drott (piano)

 

Mozart

Variations K581a

Schumann

Fantasiestucke Op73

Rebecca Clarke

Impetuoso

Poulenc

Clarinet Sonata

 

Interval

 

Dankworth

selection from Suite for Emma

Dvorak

Minehaha’s Lament

Bechet

Petite Fleur

Jelly Roll Morton

Black Bottom Stomp

Ellington

Sunset and the Mockingbird, Don’t Mean a Thing

Benny Goodman

Medley - Memories of You, I Got Rhythm

 

Emma Johnson is one of the few clarinettists to have established a career as a solo performer, which has taken her to venues all over the world. Emma grew up in London and her career was launched when at the age of 17 she won BBC Young Musicians in front of a TV audience of 12 million, followed by the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York.

Johnson has made 30 recordings to date; her album English Fantasy has been streamed 5 million times on Spotify whilst Voyage and The Mozart Album both reached the top of the classical charts. She recently released a recording with Gloucester Cathedral choir of her own composition, Songs of Celebration.

A passionate advocate of the clarinet as a solo instrument, Emma has commissioned new works from composers such as Sir John Dankworth, Sir Michael Berkeley and Jonathan Dove. She also enjoys giving concerts with her own group, Emma Johnson and Friends, and is known for her eclectic programming, which has ranged from Mozart with Sir Yehudi Menuhin to Klezmer at the Jazz Café, and Jazz with Dame Cleo Laine.

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 her clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, a response to the climate emergency, is touring in 2024. In 2020 she received the Cobbett Medal from the Musicians’ Company Guild in the City of London for distinguished services to chamber music. She was honoured by the Queen with an M.B.E. in 1996.

Emma Johnson plays a clarinet made by the English instrument maker, Peter Eaton. In her spare time, Emma likes running and birdwatching – but not necessarily at the same time!

For more details please visit www.emmajohnson.co.uk

Follow Emma on Twitter: @ClarinetEmmaJ

Gregory Drott is a concert pianist, conductor, organist, composer and academic.

He was a prize-winning organ and piano student at both the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. He holds degrees in musicology and performance from the universities of London and Cambridge. Formerly Assisting Organist to the Choir of King’s College Cambridge and Director of Music at Pembroke College Cambridge, Gregory combines his freelance activities in the U.K. and abroad with research and undergraduate teaching at Cambridge.

He is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an alumnus of the Georg Solti Accademia for Répétiteurs and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.