Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE (born 26 February 1949) is an English soprano and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She has sung on over 100 recordings. 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.