Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list. Emma Kirkby was educated at Hanford School and Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset. Her father was Geoffrey John Kirkby, a Royal Navy Officer. Originally, Kirkby had no expectations of becoming a professional singer. As a classics student at Oxford and schoolteacher she sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups, notably Schola Cantorum of Oxford, always feeling at home most in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. The fact that her voice was not a particularly large one meant that her potential as a soloist was not recognised immediately