Soprano Emma Pennell has been awarded the 2025 recipient of Canada’s RBC Emerging Artist Award.

The soprano won the award during weekend celebrations for the 2025 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards. Pennell was chosen by a committee of artistic leaders at the National Arts Centre, and Daphne Burt, senior manager of artistic planning for the NAC Orchestra, nominated Pennell, describing them as a star on the rise.

Pennell said, “Not many people who come from places that I come from have these opportunities and so I owe it to all the Indigenous people that I’ve met along the way. Our voices, our art, our performances and our bodies belong on these stages just like everybody else. I actually have no idea how the National Arts Centre found me, but they did! It’s just amazing.”

Pennell has performed with the Canadian Opera Company and the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

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