Emma Black

Emma Black was born in Melbourne Australia At the age of 18, she won the position of principal oboe with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Sydney ˆ a position she held for 2 years before returning to Melbourne to complete her studies at the Victorian College of the Arts. Further appearances and recordings followed with Melbourne International Festival,the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Spoleto Music Festival.

Emma received scholarships and awards from the Australia Council, the Queen Elizabeth Trust to further her studies overseas. She completed post graduate studies with Heinz Holliger ( Freiburg im Breisgau),Maurice Bourgue (Geneva).

During the years 1993-2000, Emma lived in Zürich, where she played as regular guest principal oboe in the Orchester der Oper Zürich, Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich and Kammerorchester Basel. It was in this time that her interest in historical instruments was awakened and , as a member of La Scintilla working with the conductors Nicholaus Harnoncourt, Franz Welser-Möst and Adam Fischer,her career as a baroque oboist began. ( Studies followed at the Scola Cantorum with Katharina Arfken).

Emma moved to Vienna in 2000 and became the principal oboist of the Wiener Akademie (Martin Haselböck) with whom she has also appeared as soloist on many occaisions.

Since 2002, she has been a member of the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock performing at all major European festivals and concert halls and can be heard in many recordings.

In the years between 2003-2009, Emma was a member of the Kammerakademie Potsdam ( artistic dirstor Andrea Marcon), continuing the flexibility of combining period and modern instruments.She also regularly appears with many of the major period instrument orchestras and ensembles in Europe.

As a chamber musician she is very much in demand, a member of the Bach Consort Wien, Ensemble Cludiana etc. she is regularly heard in the Musikverein Vienna and the Vienna Konzerthaus.