Born in Naples,
Emma Abbate works as an official accompanist at Trinity College of
Music, London, a repetiteur and language coach for organizations
including Opera North, Pegasus Opera and the opera department of the
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and as an official accompanist
for the Hampshire Singer of the Year competition and the Bromsgrove
International Young Musicians Platform.
Emma has performed
with both
instrumentalists and singers in numerous
prestigious UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall, St
Martin-in-the-Fields, Aldeburgh Festival (for the Britten-Pears Young
Artist Programme), Southwark Cathedral, Blackheath Halls, the
Italian
Institute of Culture, and the Pump Room in Bath. Internationally, she
has performed at the Salzburger Schlosskonzerte, Aldo Ciccolini Music
Society in Naples, Anghiari International Festival with Southbank
Sinfonia, the International Festival Santanellese in Sorrento, the
Italian Institute of Culture in Lisbon, and for The William Walton
Society in Ischia.
Emma also enjoys
playing on historical instruments, and has recently performed on some
original pianos and fortepianos at the renowned Finchcocks Museum in
Kent.
Following her
graduation from the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatoire in
Naples at the age of only 19, and an Advanced Diploma from the S.
Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, Emma then studied in London with Yonty
Solomon at the Trinity College of Music, from where she gained First
Class Honours. She completed her studies with Geoffrey Pratley and
Patsy Toh as a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, from where she
was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma in Accompaniment with Distinction.
Her many prizes have included the Anglo-Czechoslovak Trust Award, the
international Ibla Grand Prize as Distinguished Musician, the
Jeejeebhoy prize for piano studies, the Grover Bennett Prize, and the
AMA Calabria Award. Emma has also performed in masterclasses for
distinguished musicians including Marcello Abbado, Roger Vignoles,
Sherrill Milnes, and Rudolf Jansen. She was awarded an Italian
Literature and Culture degree cum laude from the Federico II University
in Naples, and often devises programmes and educational events based on
Italian and Spanish themes.
