Emma-Ruth Richards is a composer born in the UK in 1985. Her deeply expressive and highly charged music has been championed by many ensembles and soloists in the UK and internationally. She is acclaimed for her understanding of both instrumental and vocal writing and her music has been described as “accomplished” (Times), and “simply beautiful” (Opera North, Bachtrack) - “She is a composer at the top of her game…possessing exceptional refinement and subtlety with a gift for writing lucid, impassioned and compelling music” (Musical Opinion).

 

Recent and forthcoming commissions include 3 Rilke Songs for soprano Ana Beard Fernandez and recorder player Iain Hall, Still Life (for oboe, viola, cello and tingsha bells, and live visual projection created by Nic Chalmers) for the Leicester International Music Festival 2025, Anne Hatheway for mezzo soprano, piano and violin (Wild Plum Arts premiere at St Andrews), Escape for pianist Tamara Stefanovich (Philharmonie Luxembourg 2022), and a world premiere tour of cello duet Until a Reservoir No Longer Remains for Guy Johnston and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Southbank Centre International Chamber Music Series 2019-2020).

 

Other recent works include a solo aria ­Secure the Ghosts for the National Opera Studio, Tenebris Litterarum (Dark Letters) string quartet for the Carducci Quartet which premiered at the Presteigne Festival 2020, and The Sail of a Flame (orchestral song cycle) for the mezzo soprano Lucy Schaufer was commissioned and premiered by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2020 and later broadcast on BBC Radio 3.​

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2018/19 saw multiple performances by the Zelkova Quartet (Manchester), Camerata Pacifica (California) and James Turnball (Presteigne Festival), The Precious Art of Scars for the Albany Trio for International Women’s Day 2019, and the release of Moto Quarto CD featuring Dark Radiance (solo cello) for the American premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

 

In previous years Emma-Ruth’s work has included Sciamachy for Britten Sinfonia premiered at the Barbican Centre, La douleur exquise (Musiques Nouvelles), and An English House for the London Sinfonietta, Soul Cry for Nicholas Daniel, Marinela for Opera North, String Quartet 1 for the Dudok Kwartet, and Woven Palaces for The Absolution Saxophone Quartet amongst others. Her music has featured in festivals including Cheltenham (2019), Presteigne (2018), Mahogany Opera's Various Stages Festival (2017), York Spring Festival (2017), Mons Capital of Culture (2015), Southbank’s Changing Britain Festival (2015), Aldeburgh (2014), Sound Scotland (2013), Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Den Haag (2012), St. Magnus Festival (2012), Sounds New Canterbury (2010), and Music of Today Southbank (2009).

 

​In 2019 Emma-Ruth was awarded the PRS Composer's Fund to complete her opera Traffick, written with librettist Nicola Chalmers; Traffick has been commissioned and developed with the Nordland Teater, Norway, The Royal Opera House and Mahogany Opera.​

 

Emma-Ruth read music at Cardiff University and then completed her PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music. She has been mentored by composers such as Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen, Judith Weir, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Colin Matthews.