Emmy The Great is the very definition of a polymath.

Born Emma-Lee Moss in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and British father, she has released three singer-songwriter albums, First Love, Virtue and Second Love; made a Christmas album, This Is Christmas, with Ash's Tim Wheeler in 2011; and composed original music for Austenland in 2013, the Mystery Show Podcast in 2015 and Mia Lidofsky’s Strangers this year. To boot, she writes about books and culture for the Guardian and is an ambassador for the Woodland Trust.

Now, at 33, she has added another string to her bow, composing the score for the York Theatre Royal and Nottingham Playhouse co-production of comedian Sara Pascoe's new stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice.

After its Nottingham premiere, Susannah Tresilian's production has transferred to York this week for a Theatre Royal main-house run until October 14, and it was Susannah who commissioned Emmy to write the music. "She began talking to Sara [Pascoe] first and then we met last summer for the first time to discuss it, at the British Library, where you can see Jane Austen's writing desk," recalls Emmy, who now lives in Brooklyn.

"I met Sara a couple of times too, just in passing; I admire her so much and though I knew she was really, really bright, but it wasn't until I met that I realised she was so super-intelligent!"

Emmy cracked on straightaway, starting to write the music before seeing the script. "Then I changed things and change makes things better. I'd throw ideas around and chuck them away or keep them as more information came in, though one of the things I wrote straight after the British Library meeting is still in there," she says.

York Press:

Alex Sawyer and Alice Haig in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Stephen Cummiskey

Explaining the writing challenge, Emmy had to achieve a balance between music off and on stage. "We had to create a language for the music, so there are things that happen outside the characters' world and then there is music that they're playing in the drawing room," she says. "Then there is my favourite, unexpected music where the score remains true to the story but takes it to new levels."

At the time of this interview, decisions were still to be made on whether talented musicians among the company would play on stage, but definitely there would be recorded music and no band. It turns out that the piano takes a regular bashing!

Emmy attended the tech week, dress rehearsal and first night in Nottingham but had to leave immediately afterwards to attend to other commitments, meaning she would miss out on a visit to York, a city that holds fond memories for her. "My dad's best friend, Robin, lives in York and he's one of the reasons I'm now a musician as I used to sing songs with him!" she says. (Robin, by the way, was among the audience on the first night in York, my sources tell me.)

From Nottingham, Emmy has headed to Asia, to spend time in Hong Kong with her parents and in Burma too, where she will work with BOSSYxx after they wrote to her. "I said, 'you know what, I have to come to Asia, why don't I come and see you?', so I'm going to go from Jane Austen straight to a very different musical project that's a total gear shift," she says.

Emmy has been writing her next album in New York, trying to re-create her memories of Asia. "So I decided the best thing I could was descend on my family for a month," she says. "After all, they really should keep me!"

Pride And Prejudice runs at York Theatre Royal until October 14 , 7.30pm, plus 2pm next Thursday and 2.30pm, Saturday and next Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk