Emma Johnson - Britain''s top classical clarinettist.
The clarinet has never been the most glamorous of instruments, which perhaps explains why so few soloists have been able to establish international careers. Emma Johnson is one of the exceptions, a wonderfully expressive player who has dominated concert stages all over the world and sold more than a quarter of a million albums.
Emma admits her victory in the 1984 Young Musician of the Year competition helped create her high profile, but that''s only a small part of the story. She did, after all, forsake a musical career to study music and English at Cambridge University, only emerging as a fully-fledged classical ''star'' after graduating in 1992.
In retrospect, her decision not to take up all the offers of work she was inundated with after her victory proved a canny one. "People think that winners must have to work ahead for years and years, but it''s not like that at all," she said. "The key is making sure people want to have you back again. That''s how you build a career out of a competition win."
At Cambridge Emma''s ambition was to become a journalist, but such was the continued demand for her on the concert circuit that she threw herself into her music full time. Emma now has 45 memorised concertos in her repertoire and has played with every major British orchestra.
Emma was inspired to take up the clarinet after listening to her father''s collection of Benny Goodman records - she later found that the great jazz clarinettist was, in turn, a fan of her work - and this early influence has obviously inspired her to occasionally experiment with jazz. She gave her first recital at the age of 10 and played in the National Youth Orchestra between the ages of 12 and 16, though, perhaps surprisingly, she never became principal clarinet.
"I think it''s because I used too much vibrato," she laughs. "I was trying too hard to be a soloist, which wasn''t what they wanted. I''m generally quite a shy person, but I have a rebellious streak where music is concerned."
As well as solo work, Emma performs with her own chamber ensemble, Emma Johnson and Friends, as well as conducting the English Chamber Orchestra and London Mozart Players.
It is, however, her career as a soloist that has given Emma most satisfaction. "I''m very proud that I''ve created a solo career," she says. "There''s usually only one player in each country who can make a go of being a full-time clarinettist."