Emma Abbate
Key details:
- Department:
- Music | Opera Studies
- Role:
- Language Coach - Italian
Biography
The Neapolitan pianist Emma Abbate enjoys a demanding career as a piano accompanist and chamber musician. Described as "an amazingly talented pianist" by the leading Italian magazine Musica, she has performed in duo recitals for international festivals and concert societies in Austria, Portugal, Italy, Poland and USA, and at many prestigious UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Royal Opera House, St John’s Smith Square, St George’s, Bristol and at the Aldeburgh Festival, in addition to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.
Emma's varied discography includes a series of acclaimed recordings devoted to Italian vocal chamber music with the mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp (Sera d’inverno: Songs by Ildebrando Pizzetti) and baritone Ashley Riches (Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Shakespeare Sonnets). A keen advocate of contemporary music, Emma has released two discs devoted to works by Stephen Dodgson that include his piano quintets with the Tippett Quartet. Other world-première recordings include works for cello and piano by Algernon Ashton and Krzysztof Meyer with Evva Mizerska. Emma also cultivates an active interest in historical keyboards, and has performed and recorded on a range of original instruments for the Finchcocks Charity and at Hatchlands Park and the Russell Collection. She has recently released Weber's complete keyboard duets on an original Viennese fortepiano together with Julian Perkins, with whom she has also recorded Mozart's complete keyboard duet sonatas. Their next release, entitled Tournament for Twenty Fingers, features piano duets by British composers from the twentieth century.
Based in London, Emma is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a staff coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Following her graduation from the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatoire in Naples and an Advanced Diploma from the S. Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, Emma studied in London with Yonty Solomon. She has been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her ‘significant contribution’ thus far to the music profession.