Cumbrian mezzo-soprano Emma Stannard trained at the Royal Northern College of Music and on the Royal Academy Opera Course. Upcoming engagements include Olga in Eugene Onegin (Opera Holland Park), Fileno in Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (Bampton Classical Opera) and alto soloist in Mozart Requiem (Really Big Chorus).
On the operatic stage, Emma has performed Idamante Idomeneo and Enrico Elisabetta I (English Touring Opera), Flora La Traviata (Opera Holland Park YAP), Mother Amahl and the Night Visitors (Bampton Classical Opera), Selene Berenice (La Nuova Musica), Minerva Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Pepa Goyescas (The Grange Festival).
For Royal Academy Opera, Emma appeared as Ruggiero Alcina, Junon Orphée aux enfers, Hanna May Night and Poppea L’incoronazione di Poppea and was the recipient of a Regency Award for her successes with the company. Emma has also performed as a chorister with both Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera in Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Poliuto, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore and Rigoletto. For the English National Opera, Emma has sung as an extra-chorister in productions of Madam Butterfly and Luisa Miller.
On the concert platform, performances include an opera gala with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Hallé and Kinshasa Orchestras at the Royal Festival Hall. She has performed song recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, St Martin-in-the Fields and the Lewes Festival of Song and has sung with the L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève at the Victoria Hall (Geneva) as an alumni of the Georg Solti Accademia.
Emma has a wealth of experience singing oratorio repertoire and has sung with choral societies across England including the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, University of Kent, Blackburn Music Society, Saddleworth Male Voice Choir, Halifax Choral Society, Congleton Choral Society, Eastbourne Choral Society and many more. She has had the joy of performing repertoire including the Matthew Passion (Bach), B Minor Mass (Bach), Magnificat (Bach), Missa Solemnis (Beethoven), Judas Maccabeus (Handel), Messiah (Handel), Nelson Mass (Haydn), Elijah (Mendelssohn), Requiem (Mozart), Petite Messe Solonelle (Rossini) and Gloria (Vivaldi). In addition, Emma sings as a professional chorister with the Philharmonia Chorus and has performed in venues including the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.
Emma has won the Bampton Classical Opera Competition, the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Award and the Audrey Strange Memorial Award at the final of the Royal Oversea’s League Vocal Competition. She was also a finalist in the 2018 Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino and London Handel Festival Singing Competitions and was a 2018/19 Handel House Talent Scheme Young Artist.