Live Viennese Gala Sun 3 – Sun 10 January

Celia Llácer began her orchestral conducting studies with Maestro Borja Quintas and pursued her master’s degree at the University of the Arts in Zurich, studying under Professors Johannes Schlaefli and Christoph-Mathias Mueller. Throughout her training, she has participated in masterclasses with renowned conductors such as Jaap van Zweden, Emmanuel Villaume, James Lowe, Bruno Aprea, and Professor Nicolas Pasquet.

In the 2024/25 season, Celia served as Chief Conductor of the Junges Kammerorchester Ostschweiz. She has also worked as Assistant Conductor with the Schweizer Jugend-Sinfonie-Orchester under Maestro Johannes Schlaefli, and with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège during the 2023/24 season alongside Maestro Gergely Madaras.

She took part in the Gstaad Conducting Academy during 2024 edition, where she conducted the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. In 2023, she was selected for The Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera. That same year, she also conducted at the Tanglewood Festival with the Young Artists Orchestra of the Tanglewood Institute at Boston University.

Born in Belfast, Emma Morwood studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was a major prize winner. Now studying with Karen Cargill, Emma has sung with many of Europe’s finest orchestras and conductors.

Recent concert highlights include Haydn Creation with the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Daniele Rustioni; Handel Messiah at the Usher Hall (Edinburgh Royal Choral Union – ERCU)  Strauss Vier letzte Lieder at Glasgow City Halls;  a tour of Handel Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra (IBO) and the Ulster Orchestra; Barber’s Knoxville (Meadows Chamber Orchestra); Berg’s Sieben frühe lieder at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow; Schoenberg String Quartet no. 2 with the Edinburgh Quartet; and Verdi Requiem (ERCU).

In May 2023, Emma performed the role of Despina in the new Irish National Opera (INO) production of Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte. Other recent roles include the lead role of Iris Robinson in Abomination: a DUP Opera by Conor Mitchell, at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, with the Belfast Ensemble; Musetta in Northern Ireland Opera’s (NIO) critically acclaimed production of La bohème. She also appears in NIO film ‘Old Friends and Other Days’ which has been a major award winner at film festivals all over the world. Other opera appearances include the inaugural performances of Ulster Touring Opera A Night at the Opera; Costanza in Vivaldi’s Griselda with INO and the IBO; Amore and Minerva in The Return of Ulysses (Monteverdi) with Opera Collective Ireland and the Akademie für Alte Musik, conducted by Christian Curnyn; Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) Previews; Pamina in The Magic Flute (Opera Theatre Company (OTC)); Morgana in Handel’s Alcina (Buxton Festival/OTC); Micaela in Carmen (New Devon Opera); and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Irish tour/OTC).

As well as being a qualified paraglider pilot, Emma has two children, Lucas and Orla, and in her spare time enjoys climbing, wild swimming and dressmaking.

www.emmamorwood.com