Select Compositions

*denotes performance

Summerland
Chamber Oratorio (2019)
Ground Beetle*
for Full Orchestra (2019)
Games for Marimba
Marimba solo (2018)
Dream Pictures*
for Soprano, Piano, String Trio, Marimba, Percussion, and Electronics (2018)
INSECTA
Six Movements for Solo Piano (Published 2018, CCC Music Co.) Dragonfly, Earthworm, Pond Skater, Ground Beetle, Cricket, Yellow Jacket
Mubvamaropa*
for Cello Quartet (2017)
Meal Plan*
for Three Percussionists (2017)
Who knows if the moon’s*
for Baritone and Piano (2017)
Rip-off of the Rip-off
for Solo Piano (2017)
Falling Flowers
for Baritone and Piano (2017)*
Airport Birds*
for String Quartet (2017)

October Lullaby*
for Alto Solo, SATB Chorus, Full Orchestra (2016)
Fugue in d minor
for String Trio (2016)
Quarter Tones
Electronic Music (2016)
Windows*
for Bassoon, Piano, Vibraphone, Percussion (2016)
so many tictoc*
for Soprano and Piano (2016)
Second Line*
for Brass Quintet (2016)
The Rumor*
for Wind Quintet (2016)
Sidewinder*
for Percussion Ensemble (2016)
1407 Kendrick Court*
for String Quartet (2016)
The Garden of Love
for Piano and Violin (2016)
Sympathy
for String Quartet (2015)*
Erinyes
for Full Orchestra (2015)*

A Minor Bird*
for Soprano and Piano (2015)
Le Vent dans les Arbres (The Wind in the Trees)*
for Piano (2015)
The Lake*
for Chamber Orchestra (2015)
River to Nowhere
for Chamber Orchestra (2015)
Lucy’s Lullaby*
for Piano (2015)
Willows
for String Quartet (2015)
Introspection
for Chamber Ensemble (2015)
Faust’s Rag*
for Full Orchestra (2014)
An English Sonnet*
for Soprano and Chamber Septet (2014)
Chamber Sonata in d minor*
for Chamber Orchestra (2013)
Curiosity*
for Piano (2012)
Cherry Blossoms*
for Piano Trio (2011)

Arrangements

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
for Piano Trio (2017)*
In the Bleak Midwinter
for String Orchestra (2016)
Overture to Candide
for String Trio (2016)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
for String Trio (2015)*

Ode to Joy
for String Trio (2015)*
Sacred Star
for Piano (2014)*
Amazing Grace
for Piano (2013)*

Media

Insecta

Piano Solo Suite

Level: Late Intermediate – Advanced

I have always been fascinated by the world that exists right beneath our feet. With Insecta, I have attempted to write a set of pieces showing this world as it really is – not as a disturbing menagerie of creepy-crawlies, but as an interesting and beautiful collection of diverse creatures that add color to our daily lives. Each of the six movements depicts a different insect I have found in my backyard: a recklessly independent dragonfly weaving between river reeds; an earthworm, isolated in the dark, silent earth; a nimble pond skater dancing a ballet on the water’s surface; a good-natured ground beetle ambling aimlessly; a sonorous cricket whose song is interrupted by constant panic at every outside sound or movement; a belligerent yellow jacket buzzing angrily. I hope you enjoy playing these pieces, and that they make you think about the tiny, fascinating lives that are so often overlooked. To find magic, we need not look further than our own backyards.

Published by the CCC Music Company.

Learn more

About Emma

Emma began playing piano at age four and started composing at age six. She studied Composition with Dr. Kevin Olson at the Utah State University (USU) Youth Conservatory throughout high school. Emma has been recognized as a 2018 MTNA Composition Young Artist National 2nd place winner, a 2018 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Honorable Mention, a 2017 NFMC National 2nd place winner, a 2017 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Finalist, a National YoungArts Foundation merit winner in 2017 and 2015, a 2016 MTNA Composition Senior National Finalist, and has won awards from UMTA, MTNA, NextNotes, USU Youth Conservatory, and PTA Reflections. She won the NFMC Olga Klein Nelson award in 2015.

In 2019, Emma attended the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) Summer Institute in Paris, France, with the Florence Gould Foundation Michael Iovenko Fellowship. She attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Composition Program in 2016 and the Brevard Music Institute Composition Program in 2015. In 2017, she was commissioned by the acclaimed Fry Street Quartet to write a string quartet for the inaugural year of the Fry Street Chamber Music Festival. Her compositions have been premiered by the Fry Street Quartet, the American Festival Chorus & Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra Ogden in Utah, and she has premiered several works at Vanderbilt University. She recently celebrated the publication of her piano solo suite, Insecta: Backyard Encounters. An accomplished cellist, harpsichordist, and pianist, Emma was named the 2017 Utah Sterling Scholar Winner in Instrumental Music. Emma currently attends Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music as a Composition major.