She also won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1991 which led to her New York City recital debut at Carnegie hall.
Emma Johnson is one of the few clarinettists to have established a busy career as a solo performer which has taken her to major European, American and Asian venues as well as to Africa and Australasia.
Her recording of sonatas by Brahms and Mendelssohn with John Lenehan was described as "definitive...triumphant...a landmark disc" in The Observer and follows on from her classical chart-topping successes: Voyage and the Mozart Album on the Universal Label.
Her recording of the Finzi Concerto was nominated for a Gramophone award and Pastoral was chosen as CD of the Year by BBC Music Magazine.
[7] Johnson is a published composer too and during lockdown she wrote a clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, inspired by a need to express something in music about the climate crisis.