Jemma Starling

Biography

Jemma Starling is currently studying a MA in Musical Direction and Coaching at the Royal Academy of Music. She holds a BA (Hons) in Music (1st) from the University of Cambridge (2022). While there, she was Musical Director on Dogfight (Brickhouse Theatre Company, 2021), Assistant Musical Director for My Fair Lady (ADC Theatre, 2019) and Assistant Musical Director and co-orchestrator of the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society’s gala showcase, I Got Rhythm (2022).

During her undergraduate studies, she was involved in productions of new writing as co-music director, and music director: Survival Strategies (ADC Theatre) and Living with Sin, which went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022 with Cambridge University.

Jemma is also a violinist. She played in an NYMT production of A Little Princess (The Other Palace) as well as in Company (ADC Theatre) and Rapunzel (CUADC/Cambridge Footlights Pantomime) during her undergraduate degree.

During her time at the Academy, she has co-orchestrated Colored Lights: The Songs of Kander and Ebb (2022) and was Musical Director on a project of Sweeney Todd. Jemma has previously held the role of an orchestral pianist for two years in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, where she performed at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2019 BBC Prom season.