Emma Johnson MBE 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 3 million times on Spotify whilst Voyage and The Mozart Album both reached the top of the classical charts. Her CD of Brahms Sonatas with John Lenehan was described as 'definitive' in the Observer.

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 a series of new works have been published by Queen’s Temple Publishing.

Johnson studied Music and English at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where she was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow. In 2020 she was awarded the Cobbett Medal by the Musicians’ Company Guild in the City of London for distinguished services to chamber music. She was honoured by the Queen with an MBE in 1996.

Emma plays a clarinet by the English maker, Peter Eaton. She has been patron of the Pembroke College Girls’ Choir since it was founded in 2018.