Emily Howard

Emily Howard was born in Liverpool in 1979. She spent her formative years learning the cello, playing chess (she was British Junior Girls Chess Champion for 6 years) and composing for local orchestras including The Liverpool Mozart Orchestra. Following a Masters in Composition with Adam Gorb at the Royal Northern College of Music, gaining a double distinction as well as the Soroptimist International Award for Composers, Emily is currently completing a PhD in Composition with John Casken at The University of Manchester, supported by a Victor Sayer Scholarship.

Commissions and performances include Dualities (RLPO’s Ensemble 10/10, Clark Rundell), Lachrymose (Southbank Sinfonia, Nicholas Cleobury), Lachrimae Antiquae Novae for the LSO Discovery Panufnik Young Composers’ Scheme, and Magnetite, commissioned by Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to open the RLPO’s Capital of Culture season under Vasily Petrenko. In July 2008, Liverpool – The World in One City, a concerto for solo basset clarinet, choir and orchestra united the Liverpool Youth Orchestra with local primary school choirs (300 children) and clarinettist Mark Simpson (BBC Young Musician 2006) in a concert to celebrate the Capital of Culture at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.

Recent works include Wild Clematis in Winter for The NMC Songbook, Songs from Dickens (Loré Lixenberg / Gerald Davidson / The Fidelio Trio) and a UBS commission Solar for the London Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon; and Zátopek!, a chamber opera inspired by legendary Czech Olympian Emil Zátopek, commissioned by New Music 20 x12 as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Emily is a recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers 2008. She teaches composition at the RNCM Junior School and the University of Leeds and works on Composition Outreach Projects with the Manchester Camerata.