EMMA SCHMIEDECKE

Praised for her “huge musicality, depth of interpretation, and technical expertise needed to distinguish oneself in the music profession” (Manhattan International Music Competition), cellist Emma Schmiedecke was most recently awarded a Silver Medal in the Professional Category of the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition.  Awards and prizes include the Temerty Family Foundation Scholarship, the George Martin/Hans Thatcher Clark Scholarship, the Christopher Bunting Scholarship, the Clive Allen Fellowship, the Denise Ireland & Harry Underwood Fellowship, the Ingeborg and Angela Kramer Award, a McGill University Graduate Dean’s Award, and first prize in the Bravura Philharmonic and Bergen Philharmonic Young Artist Competitions.  As an advocate for contemporary music, she has worked closely with composers Joan Tower, George Tsontakis, John Corigliano, Ana Sokolovic, and Susan Botti, and has performed with the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fifth House Ensemble, Against the Grain Theatre Company, Novarumori Ensemble, and the Contemporaneous New Music Ensemble in multiple world premieres.  As guest soloist Emma has performed with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, and Bravura Philharmonic.  Emma has been a visiting artist at The Banff Centre and the Centre d’Arts Orford and has attended the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix Chamber Music, Tuckamore Chamber Music, Vermont Mozart, Atlantic, Heifetz, Round Top, Bowdoin, and Summit festivals, the Fresh Inc. New Music Festival, the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, the NYU Steinhardt String Quartet Seminar, and the Oxford Cello School in Oxford, England.  As a chamber and orchestral musician, she is cellist and co-founder of Duo Caprice and has performed as cellist in the American Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Company of Middlebury Orchestra, the Opera Italiana Symphony Orchestra, the Pronto Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de l’Agora, and with the New Jersey Choral Society.  In addition to performing, she is a teaching artist in cello for the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s and has been a chamber music coach at the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists of the Royal Conservatory of Music.  Emma recently received both a Graduate Diploma and a Master of Music in Cello Performance from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.  She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Bard College, all magna cum laude.  Her primary teachers include Peter Wiley, Matt Haimovitz, Yegor Dyachkov, Desmond Hoebig, Andrés Diaz, Sophie Shao, Luis Garcia-Renart, André Emelianoff, Bjørn Bantock, and Jonathan Spitz.  She plays a 1918 Italian cello “Tutto” by Puglisi of Catania.