Emma Lucy Gates Bowen was born on November 5, 1880, to Jacob Forsberry Gates and Susa Amelia Young in St. George, Utah. She was a granddaughter of Brigham Young and Lucy Bigelow Young. She was the oldest of ten siblings. Although she did not begin formal music studies until she was 12, Emma Lucy Gates Bowen won a piano competition at an eisteddfod held in Salt Lake City at the age of 14. In addition to piano, she also studied violin and vocal performance. She went to Germany, accompanied by her half-sister, Leah Dunford, and her husband, John A. Widtsoe, to formally study music at age 16. Emma Lucy Gates Bowen began studies at the Berlin Conservatory in 1899 but decided to leave and focus on voice performance with Blanche Corelli later that year. Emma Lucy Gates Bowen returned to Utah in the summer of 1901. She performed widely in Utah before traveling to New York to make her concert debut at Carnegie Hall. She would return to Europe in 1907 and continue to study with Blanche Corelli and had her European debut in Berlin in 1908. In 1909, Emma Lucy Gates Bowen received a contract with the Royal Opera of Berlin and became the prima coloratura soprano with the Kassel Royal Opera in 1911. While on vacation to the United States, World War I broke out and she was forced to stay in the United States. She secured a contract with Columbia Records and auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. After singing in engagements across the country, she returned to Utah. In 1915, she formed the Lucy Gates Opera Company with her musician brother, B. Cecil Gates. On June 30, 1916, in Salt Lake City, Utah, she married a widowed Albert Ernest Bowen, who was later called as an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had two children with his deceased wife. Emma Lucy Gates Bowen continued to perform across the country but would stay closer to Utah as she aged. Lucy continued performing until 1948. Emma Lucy Gates Bowen died on April 30, 1951, Salt Lake City, Utah.