Emma Bell trained at the Royal Academy of Music, London and the National Opera Studio and currently studies with Joy Mammen. She was the winner of the 1998 Kathleen Ferrier Award and the following year was a BBC New Generation Artist.

Plans this season and beyond include Elisabeth Tannhäuser and Ellen Orford Peter Grimes for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Governess in Britten The Turn of the Screw with the Staatsoper Berlin; Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and Kirill Petrenko and concerts including Ludmila in Dvorák Saint Ludmila with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder and Wagner Wesendonck Lieder with the Orchestra of Opera North and Aleksandar Markovic. For the Royal Opera, Covent Garden Emma has sung Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Mme Lidoine in Poulenc Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni; Leonora in Nielsen Maskarade and Tina in Judith Weir Miss Fortune.

In recent seasons Emma has made house debuts at Zurich Opera (Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg); Hamburg State Opera (Elsa Lohengrin); Oper Köln (Strauss Arabella) and Staatsoper Berlin (Governess The Turn of the Screw). Other roles have included Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress, Elettra and Donna Elvira at La Scala, Milan; Donna Elvira and Countess Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Opéra National de Paris and the Liceu, Barcelona; Elsa for Welsh National Opera; Governess and Elettra for Teatro Real, Madrid and Miss Jessel The Turn of The Screw; Fox The Cunning Little Vixen and Handel Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

In concert, Emma has sung Female Chorus Rape of Lucretia in Vienna and Cologne with Robin Ticciati and Leonore Fidelio at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Other recent concerts include Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Antonio Pappano, Het Gelders Orkest and Antonello Manacorda and also with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; Britten War Requiem with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Antonio Pappano and the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins; Strauss Vier letzte Lieder; Rossini Stabat Mater and Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, again with Antonio Pappano; Wagner Wesendonck Lieder with Lothar Koenig and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera; Britten Our Hunting Fathers with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder and Beethoven Symphony No 9 at the BBC Proms with Gianandrea Noseda and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in London and Paris. Recitals have included a Strauss programme with Emmanuel Ax at Wigmore Hall, London.

Emma has recorded Handel Saul with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi), Lieder by Strauss, Bruno Walter and Joseph Marx and Handel arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr (Linn Records).