Soprano EMILY NOËL, praised for her "sparkling performances" and "sheer vocal beauty" by The Washington Post, and her “alluring clarity and fluidity” by the Wall Street Journal, concertizes throughout North America and Europe in a wide variety of repertory expanding from the Medieval to the contemporary. Highlights of recent seasons include Davenant’s Macbeth and the Second Shepherds’ Play at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre; The Merchant of Venice with the Gabrieli Players at The Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare's Globe; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Measure for Measure at the John F. Kennedy Center; Purcell's The Witch of Endor at the Washington National Cathedral; the premiere of Jessica Krash's song cycle Sulpicia's Songs at the Strathmore Mansion; Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Washington Bach Consort; a program celebrating the works of Edgar Allen Poe with Lyric Fest at AVA; and CPE Bach’s Magnificat at the American Bach Society Biannual Meeting. Ms. Noël has also appeared as a soloist in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion at the Washington National Cathedral, George Crumb’s Apparition and Ancient Voices of Children with Indiana University’s New Music Ensemble, and Monteverdi’s Vespers with The Orchestra of the 17th Century. An avid chamber musician and choral singer, Ms. Noël has collaborated with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Modern Musick, Seven Times Salt, Raven Consort, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Skylark Vocal Ensemble, American Classical Orchestra, and Cathedra; and has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Dumbarton Concert Series, Shandelee Music Festival, Peabody at Homewood Recital Series, and Indiana University New Frontiers Program.
Ms. Noël has sung a wide range of operatic roles, notably Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto with Ente Concerti Città di Iglesias (Sardinia, Italy), Nora in Vaughn Williams' Riders to the Sea at the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival (Netherlands), Iphis in a staged production of Handel’s Jephtha with The Handel Choir of Baltimore, and Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with American Opera Theater, for which the Baltimore Sun lauded her “tonal warmth and highly expressive phrasing as Dido.” Other staged highlights include Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with Ente Concerti Città di Iglesias (Italy), Anna/Cruesa in Cavalli's La Didone for the Washington DC Early Music Festival, and Berger in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House, for which the Washington Post commended her “strikingly lovely voice.”
Ms. Noël can be heard on Past Made Present: Music of Jessica Krash on the Albany label, The Road Home with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale on the Avie label, and A New Song: Celebrating the King James Bible and Christmas in New Spain with The Folger Consort on the Bard label. She has also sung for multiple recordings on the Dorian Label, including Passion & Lament: Choral Masterworks of the 17th Century; Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets; and Handel's Alexander's Feast. Ms. Noël's radio broadcasts include solo performances on Washington DC’s classical station, WETA, and Baltimore's public radio station, WYPR. A native of Washington, D.C., Ms. Noël earned her Master of Music in voice from Peabody Conservatory and her Bachelor of Music from the University of Maryland, College Park. Ms. Noël has served on the faculties of Franklin & Marshall College, The Community College of Rhode Island, and Notre Dame of Maryland University. She currently teaches voice and aural skills at Otterbein University.