Nottingham born Stuart Eminson is a Royal Academy of Music graduate, having studied with Angela Malsbury of the London Mozart Players, Nicholas Rodwell of The Royal Opera House Orchestra and Richard Addison of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His interests in music became obvious whilst singing in his school choir and taking up the recorder. Soon, his natural musical flair was recognised and for the next 7 years he was tutored clarinet by Barbara Burton who was a great influence and inspiration to him, followed by 2 invaluable years with Nigel Hinson.

 

During his studies at the RAM, Stuart won several plaudits, including the John Solomon prize for solo recital, the Geoffrey Hawkes prize for clarinet and the Nicholas Blake prize for wind chamber music. He was also given the chance to play for and learn from the best of international clarinet talent including masterclasses with Michael Collins, Gervase de Peyer, James Campbell, Andrew Marriner and Karl Leister.

Based in London, Stuart is currently pursuing his freelance career and has performed in many parts of the country as well as internationally in various orchestras, as part of chamber music ensembles and as a solo recitalist. He is regularly invited to play guest principal with The Orchestra of The English National Ballet, alongside many other leading British orchestras. With the BBC Concert Orchestra, he has played live for BBC Radio 2's programme Friday Night is Music Night and guest principal clarinet for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recently he has been playing as guest principal clarinet with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. He was also a member of the orchestra for the touring production of Cameron MacKintosh’s Oliver! which took him around the United Kingdom and went on to Canada.

Passionate about chamber music, he is a co-founder member of A U R A , a member of Junge Deutsche Sinfonie and a member of The St Clements Wind Ensemble performing in Germany, France, Norway, London and Edinburgh. He has also played with chamber groups such as the Galliard Ensemble, Continuum, Sound Collective, London Chamber Group and Clod. In 2003, Stuart was invited to give the first performance of a work written by composer/cellist Thomas Gregory for clarinet, cello and piano. This  was given at the Colour House Theatre with great success and has been subsequently recorded.

Stuart also plays regularly with pianist Claire Capps to form the Emnica Duo, performing in festivals and music societies across the UK to great acclaim. In 2005, Stuart was nominated with Claire on piano, to take part in the prestigious Landor Records competition where he reached the semi finals- the only clarinettist to do so.

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"Stuart Eminson’s November recital at the Colour House, Merton Abbey Mills, was something of an event, and perfectly showed his remarkable range.  After playing of this poise, affection and gentle beauty it was hard to believe that Schubert’s “Arpeggione” Sonata wasn’t actually written with the clarinet in mind.  At the other extreme, in Yoshimatsu’s brilliantly descriptive “Fuzzy Bird” Sonata it was hard to believe one was listening to the same player.  And with his delirious virtuosity in Giampieri’s naughty “Venetian Carnival” it was hard to believe the evidence of one’s ears that the piece was humanly possible! 

With Schubert and the clarinet on the menu, the “Shepherd on the Rock” was an irresistible finale, in which Stuart and his unfaultable pianist Claire Capps were joined by the ringing soprano of Christina Haldane.  Schubert did have the clarinet in mind in this piece, of course, and the Alpine echoes could not have been more captivatingly done.  Their encore of Gershwin’s “Summertime” reminded you that Stuart is just as capable of hard-toned blue notes, but with all this spectacular sound the most abiding memory has to be his exquisite, whispered pianissimi.  What a player this young man is."

John Hawks
Music Columnist, Time and Leisure Magazine
Manager, Sunday Evening Music Among Friends 

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In October 2006, Stuart was featured in The Classical Music Magazine produced by Rhinegold Publishing Ltd. The article is on his portfolio career as a clarinettist in what is already a fierce and competitive genre of work.

 

Highlights of some of Stuart's engagements include playing for the Symphony Orchestra of India in a tour of Mumbai. After spending September 2006 with the orchestra he returned for a season in February 2007 for several concerts and recordings. A few months later he was in Kazakhstan with the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra with the renowned violinist Marat Bisengaliev. Also, Stuart had the pleasure  to a London performance of Richard Strauss's Duet Concertino with bassoonist John McDougall, conducted by Levon Parikian in March of 2007.

Forthcoming engagements include playing with Opera De Bauge in the Loire Valley in France; A London performance of Copland's Clarinet Concerto with conductor Marc Dooley and the Kew Sinfonia (July 2009), a new BBC 2 series called The Maestro starting in August 2008 with the BBCCO, and an appearance on X Factor with Girls Aloud!

His interests in the clarinet world are not only confined to classical music – involvement in Jazz and other genres have led him to performances, amongst others, at The Jazz Café, The Kentish Town Forum and Bar Rhumba, alongside recordings and albums for Soul Jazz Records and Electric M.E.L.T. He has taken part in projects with artists such as saxophonist, Chris Bowden; drummer, Andrew Missingham and recently recorded for singer/songwriter Kate Nash. Amongst others, he has played with Westlife, Pink Martini, Marti Pello, Courtney Pine. Mica Paris, Glen Campbell and Joe Brown. He has also taken part in the recording and world premiere performance of Karl Jenkins’s new orchestral piece ‘Tlep' with The West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra. The work's interests are in Kazakh folk tunes and instruments from Kazakhstan, and since its debut at the Royal Albert Hall, is available on Sony BMG Classics.