Emma Shapplin

Emma Shapplin began her music career in the classical tradition, studying opera with various teachers before moving to rock. She discovered that although rock gave her a certain artistic freedom and brought her to an exploration of the lower range of her voice, she was still not entirely satisfied. Consequently, Emma decided to create her own style with the help of great musicians from a wide array of genres of the industry. She first studied harmony and piano in Paris and then met with vocal-coach Yaël Benzaquen – a unique and experienced maître de chant (“master of song”) whom Emma subsequently always consulted, especially when exploring new vocal possibilities and directions.

This self-made style evolved into a combination of diverse influences including opera, lyric poetry, modern trance, rock and synth-pop.

Emma was raised speaking French but decided she wanted her first two albums to be written mainly in medieval Italian, because Emma believes, "It is a language that sings naturally and leaves a large open space to dreams". Her first album Carmine Meo (1998) represents her debut step as a professional artist. A few years later, Emma was invited by composer Graeme Revell to sing three original and graceful tracks based on poetry of Dante from his score for the Hollywood movie Red Planet - a soundtrack that she shared with Peter Gabriel and Sting. For her second album Etterna, Emma, a great lover of poetry and li