Concert 1 Saturday 27th September 2025
Clarinet Celebration
Emma Johnson, clarinet and Gregg Drott, piano
The concert is at 7:30pm on Saturday 27th September 2025 at Amersham Free Church. Tickets can be bought on-line here or on the door.
Programme:
Emma Johnson is one of the most successful clarinettists of our times, and she brings a programme to Amersham which shines a light on all the major styles of clarinet music from the classical (Mozart) to the romantic (Schumann and Clarke), and up to the present day. Emma also explores the jazz influence on the instrument with works by legends such as Benny Goodman, John Dankworth and Duke Ellington, so we really hear the clarinet in all its incarnations!
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Emma Johnson MBE is one of the few clarinettists to have established a career as a solo performer. Emma grew up in London and her career was launched when, at the age of 17, she won BBC Young Musician of the Year followed by the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York. Before embarking on a musical path, she studied Music and English at Pembroke College, Cambridge University and since then she has given concerts all over the world.
Emma Johnson has made 30 recordings to date; tracks from her recent album, English Fantasy, have been streamed over 5 million times on Spotify. Voyage and The Mozart Album on the Universal label were also classical chart-topping successes and Johnson’s CD of Brahms Sonatas with John Lenehan was described as “definitive” in the Observer. Her recording of Stanford and Finzi was nominated for a Gramophone Award.
Emma Johnson is also a composer; books of her arrangements and compositions have been published by Chesters, Fabers and Encore Publications. A series of new solo clarinet pieces has also been published by Queen’s Temple Publishing and Songs of Celebration, Johnson’s composition for clarinet and choir, has recently been performed in Dublin, London and Tokyo. Her clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, about the climate crisis, premiered in 2023 and has toured throughout the UK played by Johnson’s handpicked Orchestra for the Environment.
In 2020 Emma Johnson was awarded the Cobbett medal for distinguished services to chamber music from the Musicians’ Company guild in the City of London. She loves to collaborate with other musicians and also directs her own ensemble, Emma Johnson and Friends, whose recent live recording of the Schubert Octet was critically acclaimed.
Emma Johnson’s TV appearances have ranged from a recital for Sky Arts TV to a televised BBC Prom concert. Emma played the popular theme for The Victorian Kitchen Garden on BBC TV(winning an Ivor Novello Award).
Videos of her performances and masterclasses can be viewed on her YouTube channel. Emma’s radio work includes Artist of the Week for both BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM as well as for radio stations around the world and she has been a featured guest on BBC’s Womans Hour and World at One. Her radio broadcasts about composer Gerald Finzi and poet John Milton on BBC Radio 4 were both chosen as Pick of the Week and she is often invited to give talks including, most recently, Comedy Classical, an exploration of humour in music, for The Arts Society.
In 2024 she founded the Emma Johnson Foundation to increase awareness of music amongst primary school children through Instrument Stories workshops. Emma has also given masterclasses throughout the world and hosts a yearly clarinet course in London each summer.
Emma was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge and in 2017 the college commissioned a portrait of her. She enjoys running and is a keen bird watcher too. Emma was honoured by the Queen with an M.B.E. in 1996. Her instrument is made by the English clarinet maker, Peter Eaton.
Gregg Dott 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.
Clarinet Celebration
Emma Johnson, clarinet and Gregg Drott, piano
The concert is at 7:30pm on Saturday 27th September 2025 at Amersham Free Church. Tickets can be bought on-line here or on the door.
Programme:
| Mozart | Variations K581a |
| Schumann | Fantasiestucke Op 73 |
| 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 most successful clarinettists of our times, and she brings a programme to Amersham which shines a light on all the major styles of clarinet music from the classical (Mozart) to the romantic (Schumann and Clarke), and up to the present day. Emma also explores the jazz influence on the instrument with works by legends such as Benny Goodman, John Dankworth and Duke Ellington, so we really hear the clarinet in all its incarnations!
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“She walks onto a concert platform and suddenly transforms herself into an expressive instrument of sublime beauty” The Guardian
“She really is an incredible player. She raced through the range of the instrument with graceful and supple playing” The Arts Desk
“Johnson’s musical charms include warm tone, superb musical taste and very sensitive phrasing ” The Washington Post
“She really is an incredible player. She raced through the range of the instrument with graceful and supple playing” The Arts Desk
“Johnson’s musical charms include warm tone, superb musical taste and very sensitive phrasing ” The Washington Post
********
Emma Johnson has made 30 recordings to date; tracks from her recent album, English Fantasy, have been streamed over 5 million times on Spotify. Voyage and The Mozart Album on the Universal label were also classical chart-topping successes and Johnson’s CD of Brahms Sonatas with John Lenehan was described as “definitive” in the Observer. Her recording of Stanford and Finzi was nominated for a Gramophone Award.
Emma Johnson is also a composer; books of her arrangements and compositions have been published by Chesters, Fabers and Encore Publications. A series of new solo clarinet pieces has also been published by Queen’s Temple Publishing and Songs of Celebration, Johnson’s composition for clarinet and choir, has recently been performed in Dublin, London and Tokyo. Her clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, about the climate crisis, premiered in 2023 and has toured throughout the UK played by Johnson’s handpicked Orchestra for the Environment.
In 2020 Emma Johnson was awarded the Cobbett medal for distinguished services to chamber music from the Musicians’ Company guild in the City of London. She loves to collaborate with other musicians and also directs her own ensemble, Emma Johnson and Friends, whose recent live recording of the Schubert Octet was critically acclaimed.
Emma Johnson’s TV appearances have ranged from a recital for Sky Arts TV to a televised BBC Prom concert. Emma played the popular theme for The Victorian Kitchen Garden on BBC TV(winning an Ivor Novello Award).
Videos of her performances and masterclasses can be viewed on her YouTube channel. Emma’s radio work includes Artist of the Week for both BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM as well as for radio stations around the world and she has been a featured guest on BBC’s Womans Hour and World at One. Her radio broadcasts about composer Gerald Finzi and poet John Milton on BBC Radio 4 were both chosen as Pick of the Week and she is often invited to give talks including, most recently, Comedy Classical, an exploration of humour in music, for The Arts Society.
In 2024 she founded the Emma Johnson Foundation to increase awareness of music amongst primary school children through Instrument Stories workshops. Emma has also given masterclasses throughout the world and hosts a yearly clarinet course in London each summer.
Emma was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge and in 2017 the college commissioned a portrait of her. She enjoys running and is a keen bird watcher too. Emma was honoured by the Queen with an M.B.E. in 1996. Her instrument is made by the English clarinet maker, Peter Eaton.
Gregg Dott 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.
