Artist Profile
Emma Pearson
From shortly after her 25th birthday, Australian soprano Emma Pearson began her contract as a soloist at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, in Germany. Now in her 4th season for this company, she has performed over 25 roles, including Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Ännchen (Der Freischütz), with critical acclaim.
In 2009, Emma performed the demanding title role in Alban Berg’s Lulu, for the official opening of the International Maifestspiel in Wiesbaden, conducted by Marc Piollet. In this same year Emma has made her debut for Opera Australia singing Königin der Nacht at the Sydney Opera House, and now for Southern Opera.
Also a keen baroque musician, Emma has been invited to perform at the 2008 Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele where she sang the role of Parthenia in Schweitzer’s opera Alceste, conducted by Michael Hofstetter. In 2008 she was also invited to present a recital of “Haydn and Mozart in Paris” at the Rheingau Musik Festival. In 2010 she will perform at the Bach Festival in Leipzig and Musikfestspiele Potsdam-Sansoucci. She is also a regular performer with Ensemble Mattiacus and KirchenMusik conducted by Christian Pfeifer.
Previous to her work in Germany, Emma performed for NBR New Zealand Opera, in the roles of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte and Frasquita in their production of Carmen, conducted by Emmanuel Plasson. She has sung Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Tokyo and performed many operettas, musical theatre, oratorio, and chamber recitals in the UK, Germany, Japan and China as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Emma completed her formal studies after attaining a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) from the University of Western Australia in 2001, and then two years at the Australian Opera Studio, graduating in 2003 with Honours. As a student of the A.O.S. Emma performed the complete roles of Handel’s Alcina, the Governess Turn of the Screw, Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, Amenaide Tancredi, Adele Die Fledermaus and many others under the tuition of Gregory Yurisich, Patricia Price and Anthea Moller.
In 2004 Emma won the Australian Singing Competition’s prestigious Marianne Mathy Scholarship and the Symphony Australia Young Artist Prize, while she was performing in productions with NBR New Zealand Opera. In the same year she also won the More Than Opera German-Australian Opera Grant and Audience Prize, which lead to her current contract to the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. In the 2007 Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition, Emma received the 20th Anniversary Prize from the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
Emma is based in Germany where she lives with her husband, Wade Kernot.
To find out more about
Emma Pearson
visit www.operasingers.co.nz/Emma%20Pearson%20Home%20Page.html
Emma Pearson has appeared in: