Dame (Carolyn) Emma Kirkby, DBE (born 26 February 1949) is an English soprano and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists who has sung on well over a hundred recordings. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours List. Her entry in The Grove Book of Opera Singers (2008) reads: Her uncommonly pure, crystalline voice, deployed with minimal vibrato, her natural declamation, agile coloratura and her sensitivity to words have been widely admired by interpreters of early, Renaissance and Baroque music and have served as a model for many specialists in this repertory.