About Emma

Emma Cowell is a light lyric coloratura soprano, pianist, organist, conductor, and music historian specializing in art song, early music, and sacred music. Ms. Cowell earned her degree in Voice Performance from Geneva College. She earned her Master of Music degree in Music History and Literature from the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, where her thesis explored musical settings of John Donne’s poetry. She is an Associate Artist at Willamette University, where she teaches applied voice. She is also Minister of Music at Ascension Episcopal Parish.

In addition to studying the interplay of music and text, Ms. Cowell’s research interests include vocal music by historical women composers. She is Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Boulanger, a Portland-based chamber collaboration dedicated to crafting and performing engaging lecture-recitals of music by women. Recent Ensemble Boulanger performances have explored the artistic circle of Pauline Viardot, music in Jane Austen’s life and times, music by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds in midcentury Chicago, and of course, music by Nadia and Lili Boulanger, the Ensemble’s namesakes.

Ms. Cowell is an enthusiastic oratorio soloist, choral singer, and singing actor. She has appeared as a soloist with the Bach Cantata Choir and the Oregon Chorale in works by Bach, Sullivan, Charpentier, and Lotti. Ms. Cowell is a member of the Portland-based choir Cantores in Ecclesia, recently joining their Summer 2025 concert tour of Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. She has alsoappeared with Portland Opera in the Park, Portland Opera on Tap, Trinity Music, and other ensembles in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the Pacific Northwest. As a singing actor, Ms. Cowell specializes in comic roles and historical portrayal. Recent stage appearances include roles in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore and Trial by Jury. A recent favorite role was Ms. Cowell’s portrayal of Sara Levy in “The Musical Salon of Sara Levy,” a concert and theater event with the Bach Cantata Choir evoking the salon of Enlightenment harpsichordist Sara Levy. In addition to portraying Levy, Ms. Cowell provided the musicological research to craft the concert’s program, and she wrote its script.

As an accompanist, Ms. Cowell specializes in art song and continuo playing. Recent projects include Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39 with tenor Esteban Zuñiga Calderon, a Lieder lecture-recital with Ping and Woof Opera featuring music by Gustav and Alma Mahler and Robert and Clara Schumann, and a program of songs by Barbara Strozzi with mezzo soprano Hannah Penn.

As a repetiteur, Ms. Cowell has recently assisted OrpheusPDX with Il sogno di Scipione, Light Opera of Portland with Iolanthe, the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik with The Magic Flute, and the Dramatic Vocal Arts program at Willamette University with The Little Prince.