A former Cambridge student is returning to the city next week to wow audiences with a virtuoso clarinet performance.

A former Cambridge student is returning to the city next week to wow audiences with a virtuoso clarinet performance.

Emma Johnson, whose talents are well known to frequenters of the Cambridge Corn Exchange, will be fronting the European Union Chamber Orchestra (EUCO) with her interpretation of Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Concerto, when the group comes to the venue next Thursday.

“I’m really looking forward to the concert,” said Emma, who since university has toured across the world and gained a reputation for her melodic, powerful playing.

“I studied at Pembroke College Cambridge – first English Literature before moving across to study Music – and coming back to the city feels like returning to my second home,” she said.

The concert is led by Hans-Peter Hofmann, one of the most celebrated conductors of his generation, and opens with Gustav Holst’s lively St Paul’s Suite. The four-movement suite, originally entitled ‘Suite in C’ was written in gratitude to the girls school, which had a sound studio built for him, where the composer wrote almost all his music for the last 20 years of his life.

Holst’s suite for strings, which includes the popular Greensleeves, is followed by the Clarinet Concerto, and Two Elegiac Melodies by Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg.

To complete this smorgasbord of musical delights, EUCO concludes the concert with Mozart’s Symphony No. 33, scored for strings, oboe, bassoon and horn.

The orchestra is no stranger to illustrious artists, with violinist Nicola Benedetti – whose two dates at the Saffron Hall this weekend have both sold out – one of their distinguished number.

Created in 1981, EUCO has gained a reputation as the musical ambassador of the European Union, touring worldwide and visiting a range of famous concert halls including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, Milan’s Sala Verdi and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

The sonic feast kicks off at 7.30pm at Cambridge Corn Exchange with a pre-concert talk at 6pm at the nearby Cambridge University Press Bookshop, free of charge to ticket holders.

Tickets, which start at £28.50 for full price adult tickets and students and under 16s from £12.50, can be purchased online at cornex.co.uk.