Emma Wills is a Belgian concert guitarist with international recognition. She is known as one of the most versatile and promising guitarists of her generation. In her solo recitals, Emma moves fluidly between the Baroque guitar, Romantic guitar, and classical guitar, bringing several centuries of music into dialogue through unique programs. Highlights of 2025 include her solo debut in the Henry Le Boeuf Hall at BOZAR, where she was recognized as a Young Talent in the Concert Croissant series, as well as the worldwide release of her solo debut album Serenades of Spain.
In 2022, Emma was featured as a Promising Musician in the series De Twintigers on the radio station Klara (VRT). Only a year later, in 2023, she received the title of Laureate of the Belgian foundation Vocatio for her work in reviving the historical Romantic guitar. In 2021, at the age of twenty-three, she was appointed Ambassador for historical guitars at the Vleeshuis Music Museum in Antwerp, where she brings original two-hundred-year-old instruments back to life.
Additional recent highlights include her Czech debut at the Concentus Moraviae Festival at Lomnice Castle and the Town Hall of Ivančice, a solo recital at the Grand Manège Namur Concert Hall, French-language lecture concerts for students of the Conservatoire of Namur (L'IMEP), and appearances at the Ullapool Guitar Festival (United Kingdom), Barock bis Rock (Germany), the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen (Netherlands), Bach in de Stad, Kamermuziekdagen Brugge, Musique Antique Festival (Bruges), Musica Divina Festival, Festival Odegand (Ghent), the Music Chapel Queen Elisabeth Waterloo Festival, and the Walden Festival.
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Emma flourishes as a soloist and is also an active and versatile chamber musician. She is the guitarist of Duo Como (with accordionist Sebastian Enriques) and Duo Leora (with soprano Fleur Strijbos). She also performs on chitarra battente with the Delta Baroque Ensemble (an early music ensemble led by Adriaan Lauwers), collaborates closely with Canadian historical cellist Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde, and performs with fortepianist Thomas Boodts.
She has collaborated and performed with artists such as An Pierlé, Brice Soniano, conductor Pascal Van Os, Britt Truyts, the Virago Symphonic Orchestra, and actor Lukas De Wolf for her original literary-musical project Witte Vlinders (based on Platero y yoby Juan Ramón Jiménez). Her collaborations extend to renowned organizations including the IAWM Conference in Portland (USA), Muziektheater Transparant, Big Bang Festival Europe, Festival van Vlaanderen Gent, Festival van Vlaanderen Kempen, Instituto Cervantes, Theater Arsenaal, and Passa Porta. As a soloist, she has performed in remarkable heritage locations such as the Drongenhof Chapel, the Wassenhove House, and the Castle of Gaasbeek. In 2021 she was invited to take part in the project De Klank van het Vleeshuis, and in 2024 she recorded the album Au Salon—commissioned by the Vleeshuis Museum—together with fortepianist Thomas Boodts. The album was released worldwide on the Et’cetera label and features authentic instruments from the museum’s collection, inspired by nineteenth-century salon concerts in Antwerp.
On 5 September 2025, her debut album Serenades of Spain was released on the label Antarctica Spring Records. The Spanish-inspired album transcends clichés and features repertoire for Baroque, Romantic, and classical guitar, both solo and in collaboration with soprano Fleur Strijbos (BE) and cellist Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde (CA). Within the first month, the album received extensive international airplay, including live interviews on WRR Dallas 101.1 FM (USA) and Klara VRT (BE). Serenades of Spain was included in Spotify’s New Classical playlist, twice nominated for De Keuze van Klara, and praised as “a vivid, atmospheric and even infectious mosaic of the guitar in Spain’s musical imagination” (STRETTO, 2025). Clic Musique Magazine (France, 2025) wrote: “(...) she also allows herself the remarkable freedom to play several guitars — a Baroque guitar, a Romantic guitar and a modern classical guitar — which colour the whole like different landscapes, seen from the window of a train unlike any other.”
Wills began studying guitar at the age of eight. She completed her Master’s degrees in Guitar in Belgium at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp with professors Roland Broux and Nico Couck, and in Glasgow, Scotland at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with professors Sasha Savaloni, Matthew McAllister and Allan Neave. She has participated in international masterclasses with Sean Shibe, Matthew Cochran, Paul Galbraith, Alberto Mesirca, Katrin Klingeberg, Stephanie Jones, Johan Fostier, Meng Su, Laura Young, Rafael Aguirre, and João Carlos Victor.
