Emma Jayakumar is an award winning Australian composer of opera, ballet and chamber music. Recent major commissioned works for orchestra and ensemble include “Celestial Bodies” for the Darlington Quartet and the Arboria Chamber Music Festival (2026), “Lu” for the Australian Vocal Ensemble (AVE),”Swim With Me” (2024) for Perth Symphony Orchestra and WA Museum Boola Bardip, Our Little Inventor (2022) for West Australian Opera, Bell Birds Suite for String Quartet (2020) for the ABC, and The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (2020) for West Australian Ballet.

Our Little Inventor received outstanding reviews for its innovative score, libretto and performances, including a five star review from Limelight. Emma was awarded the Performing Arts WA award for Outstanding Composition for OLI, the show also receiving an impressive 12 nominations in a total of 11 categories in both the overall and the Musicals and Opera section of the 2023 (including Outstanding New Work, and Best Production). Emma was also nominated for an outstanding score award at the 2021 PAWAs for the ballet score The Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie (WA Ballet).

Completing a practice-led PhD in composition at WAAPA in 2018, which was subsequently awarded the 2018 WAAPA Research Medal for most outstanding research thesis, Emma is also an award-winning singer, and an alumna of the Royal Academy of Music, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and WAAPA opera courses, where she also sessionally teaches the next generation of young opera artists. She is a sought-after composer and fierce advocate of engaging and accessible works for young audiences, as well as new music celebrating diverse Australian voices. Her book “Children’s opera and music drama: practical tools for composers and creators” will be released by Routledge in late 2026.

In 2026, Emma will helm the inaugural Arboria Chamber Music Festival as Artistic Director, producing a 3 day festival in the Perth hills featuring chamber music and one act operas, along with community workshops and new work commissions from Australian composers of chamber and vocal music.

List of Works (Commissioning Body)

• Swim with me (Perth Symphony Orchestra and WA Museum Boola Bardip 2024) Orchestral score for recording and use in the permanent museum display in the Whale skeleton room at Boola Bardip ‘Otto the Whale’. From June 2024
• The Big Sea (Director Frances Barbe 2023) supporting music, sound design and selected arias for soprano (Emma Matthews) and string trio (Darlington Quartet) for use within the play, creative showing on December 13, 2023 at WAAPA.
• Little Red (Awesome Arts Festival 2023) Ballet for Violin, C Trumpet, Bassoon, Contrabass and Percussion. Text and choreography by Andries Weidemann. 10 performances from 26^th –30th September 2023 James Street Amphitheatre, Perth Cultural Centre.
• Circles and Centres (Darlington Piano Quintet 2023) extended song for mezzo soprano and piano quintet, for performance on 24th September 2023 at the Darlington Chamber Music 20th Anniversary Gala concert at Darlington Hall by mezzo soprano Caitlin Hulcup and the Darlington Piano Quintet. Circles and Centres is a poem used with permission by Sarah Holland-Batt.
• Our Little Inventor (West Australian Opera 2022) Opera in 7 scenes Performed at His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth on 1^st and 2^nd October 2022 (3 performances). Starring Grace Chow, Rachelle Durkin (Soprano), Brett Peart (Baritone), Yann Kee (Soprano), Xiaojia Zhang (Soprano) and the West Australian Young Voices (WAYV) accompanied by the West Australian Youth Orchestra (WAYO)

• The Lost Little Llama (Awesome Arts Festival 2022) Ballet in One Act for Wind trio, Marimba and Percussion. 10 performances from 27^th September–1^st October 2022 James St Amphitheatre, Perth Cultural Centre.

• Four Lost Songs (Darwin Symphony Orchestra 2022) Orchestral song cycle Performed soprano Rachelle Durkin and DSO at the Darwin Entertainment Centre on the 20^th August 2022

• Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (Music Book 2021) Comic opera in one act for baritone, mezzo-soprano, boy treble, and Piano Quartet 8 performances from 13^th –16^th July 2021 in the Perth Winter Arts Festival, 8 performances from 23rd–26th January 2023, in the State of Play Perth Fringe program at the State Theatre Centre Mezzanine (Heath Ledger Auditorium Foyer).

• The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (West Australian Ballet 2020) Children’s ballet for narrator, Wind Quintet and Percussion. 5 performances from 28^th September­–2^nd October  2020 in the James Street Amphitheatre, Perth Cultural Centre for the Awesome Arts Festival

• Bell Birds Suite for String Quartet (Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2020) String Quartet Recorded in ABC studios Dec, 2020 for ABC Classic FM. Performed by Madison New Music Ensemble Capitol Lakes Auditorium, Wisconsin USA, May 26^th, 2022; Acacia Quartet, Four Winds Festival NSW April 16^th, 2022; Darlington Quartet, Music Viva Perth Concert Hall 3^rd October, 2021; Darlington Quartet, Darlington Hall 12^th June, 2022                                                                                                                                
• Fox (Chimera Ensemble 2019) Song cycle for Soprano and Piano Quartet Performance on 18^th August, 2019 Dr Robert Braham Auditorium, Trinity College Perth. Performed by Emma Jayakumar (Soprano), Semra Lee (Violin), Geoffrey Bourgault (Clarinet), Melinda Forsythe (Cello) and Tommaso Pollio (Piano)

• Beyond the Wall Suite for Piano Quintet (Chimera Ensemble 2017) Suite of themes for Piano Quintet from the opera Beyond the Wall. Performed by the Chimera ensemble in the Breaking Waves opening concert of the TURA New Music Festival, Perth Town Hall October 23^rd, 2017. Live Recorded by the ABC for ABC Classic FM.

• Two pieces for Piano Trio (Chimera Piano Trio 2018) Performed in May 2018 Concert Series, with Rebecca Glorie, Melinda Forsythe and Tommaso Pollio