Emma Dean

For as long as Emma Dean can remember, music has been a constant presence in her life. Her father, a classical guitarist and singer, was also one of the founding DJs for community radio station 4MBS Classic FM.

“I remember vividly sitting in our lounge room, listening to him on the radio and trying to speak to him through the speaker at home,” she says.

The journey to finding her own voice was not a straightforward one for the Brisbane-based Bachelor of Music graduate. Having started singing at a young age, Emma stopped for a time after some negative feedback from a teacher.

“I had a strange relationship with my voice growing up and felt really embarrassed about it,” she says. “I had sung in school choirs and didn’t believe I had a good voice.”

But her love for singing and the way it made her feel carried Emma through, and she eventually found songwriting late in primary school.

“I was a shy kid,” she explains. “I’d lock myself away in my bedroom and I would write songs almost like a diary entry. But, again, I didn’t really know that I had a good voice. Writing songs was like my therapy.”

Now, Emma is helping others find their voice as a creative coach and the choir director of Cheep Trill, a colourful and inclusive community choir, open to anyone over the age of 14 who just wants to sing.

“Whether I’m working with my singing students or people in my choir, many people have been told this story that they can’t sing,” she says.

“It usually happens when they’re kids and someone in their life says something without thinking about the consequences—maybe it’s their parent or their teacher—and they just carry that with them their whole life.”

From the little girl that was told she couldn’t blend well with others to leading a movement where people are empowered to find their own voice, Emma is leading a creativity revolution and is recognised as the Griffith University 2023 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award winner for Arts, Education and Law.

“My passion is to empower others to find their own unique voice,” she explains. “How do I help others reframe this story they’ve been carrying and get them in touch with their own beautiful voice?”

But the act of singing is not just about self-expression. Emma points out all the benefits it has for improving one’s mental health, as well as the improvement in wellbeing when choir members feel connected to the community.

“It doesn’t have to be about being the next big pop star,” she says. “Singing is so much more than just that.”

Emma speaks from experience, having found much success over her 20-year career in the business. She is recognised both in Australia and overseas with positive reviews for her music and shows off-Broadway and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Emma has written music for Bluey, was a featured soloist to open The Commonwealth Games, and has written choral arrangements for John Farnham, Kate Ceberano, Katie Noonan, and Glenn Shorrock (Little River Band) to name just a few.

“It’s a tough industry,” she says. “When I graduated from The Con, I had a very different idea about how my career would go—never in a million years did I think I’d be leading a community choir.”

While living and working in New York, Emma’s life would take a significant turn that would lead her to pick up the pieces and build something new.

“Things didn’t go as I thought they would,” she explains. “I hit rock bottom and came back to Brisbane and that’s when I started my community choir. I redesigned the idea of what ‘making it’ meant to me.”

When it comes to being vulnerable through music, Emma also leads from the front, having released her latest album, Shape of a Girl, which explores her experience with loss, infertility and IVF.

“I think singing unblocks something in you and you go to a vulnerable place,” she says. “That process allows you to be able to share more openly.”

“It does something magical. I don’t really know the science behind it—but I’ve seen it and experienced it myself.”

When it came to finding her own shape in the world of music, Emma speaks with warmth of her journey at the Queensland Conservatorium.

In retrospect, she says, studying a jazz degree was an interesting move because it wasn’t a genre she really listened to before her study began. But pursuing it helped her to trust her own musical instincts.

“It was one of the few degrees focused on singing, but I encountered amazing teachers like Lisa Ryan-McLaughlin, who encouraged me to embrace my uniqueness,” she says.

The experience became pivotal for her development as an artist, Emma says. It gave her the confidence to be herself and lean into the kooky, theatrical, and flamboyant style she brought to the classroom at the time.

“Lisa just said, ‘Let’s go with it.’,” she says. “She also really encouraged my songwriting as well.”

“Many of these jazz songs are sung by people very different to me, in a different accent and from a very different background. But at The Con I was encouraged to lean into my own take.”

“I’m so grateful for my time there and the connections I made.”