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. As guest soloist, Emma has performed with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, and Bravura Philharmonic. She has been a visiting artist at Centre d’Arts Orford and The Banff Centre and has attended the Tuckamore Chamber Music, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix 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. She is co-founder of the chamber group 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. Emma holds degrees in Cello Performance from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, as well as a degree in Art History from Bard College. 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.
