Emma Johnson and The Orchestra For The Environment: Tree of Life

Emma Johnson MBE is a clarinettist who has made a name as a best selling soloist and recording artist. She won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition when she was 17 and has since recorded over 30 albums and given concerts all over the world.

Johnson is a published composer too and during lockdown she wrote a clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, inspired by a need to express something in music about the climate crisis. Its first performance with a handpicked team of like-minded musicians, the Orchestra for the Environment, was a triumph and has led to many more performances throughout the UK.

Evoking birdsong and the natural world, the music is accompanied by striking images by Edward Hutchison. It ends on an optimistic note that by working together we can effect change.

Music by Holst, Vaughan Williams and Paul Reade helps to complete this musical celebration of the natural world. We also mark the 100th anniversary of Puccini with his exquisite Crisantemi inspired by flowers. The concert ends with music that comes straight from the heart, Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, the Serenade for Strings.

This event marks the pinnacle of our season of work at Bradford Cathedral exploring environmental issues.

Photos: Fran Marshall

Emma Johnson 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 5 million times on Spotify whilst Voyage and The Mozart Album both reached the top of the classical charts. She recently released a recording with Gloucester Cathedral choir of her own composition, Songs of Celebration.

A passionate advocate of the clarinet as a solo instrument, Emma has commissioned new works from composers such as Sir John Dankworth, Sir Michael Berkeley and Jonathan Dove.

She also enjoys giving concerts with her own group, Emma Johnson and Friends and is known for her eclectic programming which has ranged from Mozart with Sir Yehudi Menuhin to Klezmer at the Jazz Café and Jazz with Dame Cleo Laine.

Emma Johnson’s compositions and arrangements have been published by Chesters and Faber Music. Her Songs of Celebration were recently performed in Dublin, London and Tokyo and her clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, a response to the climate emergency, had its premiere in 2023 and will tour in 2024 with Emma directing the Orchestra for the Environment.

Emma Johnson’s TV appearances range from a recital for Sky Arts TV, to gala events such as a televised Prom. Emma played the hit theme for The Victorian Kitchen Garden on BBC TV which won an Ivor Novello Award. Emma’s talks broadcast by the BBC have ranged from Woodwind Wizardry to The Poet John Milton and she is frequently invited to give lectures about music including, most recently, Comedy Classical for the Arts Society. She also has a YouTube channel featuring some of her performances and masterclasses.

Johnson studied Music and English at Cambridge University and was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College. In 2020 she received the Cobbett Medal from the Musicians’ Company Guild in the City of London for distinguished services to chamber music. She was honoured by the Queen with an M.B.E. in 1996. Emma Johnson plays a clarinet made by the English instrument maker, Peter Eaton. In her spare time, Emma likes running and bird-watching – but not necessarily at the same time!

For more details please visit www.emmajohnson.co.uk

The Orchestra for the Environment was formed in 2023 and gave its first concert in the Lamberhurst Music Festival to great acclaim. Composed of highly expert, sought-after players, the orchestra aims to give concerts of the highest possible standard to highlight the wonders of nature and the need to take action to combat climate change.

Programme

Gustav Holst Brook Green Suite

Prelude-Air-Dance

Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves

Emma Johnson Tree of Life for Clarinet, Harp, Percussion and strings

In the Beginning-Bacchanalia-The Truth of Things-Resolution

Interval

Paul Reade Suite from the Victorian Kitchen Garden for clarinet and harp

Prelude-Spring-Mists-Exotica-Summer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in C Major

Pezzo in forma di sonatina-Valse-Elegie-Finale Tema Russo