ABOUT ME |
Biography
Emma Lumsden was born and raised in sunny Southern California and began her musical career at the ripe age of 5 years old. Inspired by her older sisters, she began taking piano lessons in kindergarten. Five years later, she, following in her sisters' footsteps again, decided to join band and picked the French horn because it looked cool. Little did she know this decision would change her whole life.
Emma began taking private lessons on French horn in 2011 with Warren Gref. She is now a graduate of Vista Murrieta High School, where she played principal horn in her high school's top Wind Ensemble. Emma also played in honor ensembles throughout the state of California, such as the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Associations Honor Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, the California All-State Music Education Conference Honor Concert Band, the Riverside Community College Sousa Honor Band, and the Murrieta Valley Unified School District District Honor Band. Throughout high school, she was also involved in the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra. As a member of the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra, she was able to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2015 and 2016 and at the Copley Symphony Hall in 2014, 2015, and 2016. As a member of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, she performed in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Emma was an active member of her high school marching band throughout all of high school, and she earned the opportunity to perform as a French horn soloist in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she with her marching band, competed in Bands of America Grand Nationals Championship, where her band took fourteenth place in the country. In her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, she has had the honor of participating in many ensembles throughout the school. In the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018, she was a member of the renowned Wind Ensemble as assistant principal and second horn, under the direction of Stephen W. Pratt. In the fall of 2018, she was the assistant principal of the Philharmonic Orchestra and had the honor to perform under the direction of Michael Christie and Thomas Wilkins. In her time with the Philharmonic Orchestra, she performed in the premiere of the collegiate performance of the Grammy-winning opera "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" and was the chamber ensemble hornist in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. In the spring of 2019, she was appointed second horn of the chamber orchestra, where she performed under the hand of conductors such as Gary Wedow, Dominick DiOrio, and Carl St. Clair. Most recently, she was principal horn of the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra, where she performed music from Beethoven, Haydn, and Stacy Garrop. Emma had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Vienna, Austria at the International Education of Student Vienna program. In Vienna, she studied music with Europe's most renown musicians. She took private lessons with Franz Söllner, studied chamber music with Ulrike Anton, William McElheney, Dierdre Brenner, Matthias Maurer, and Barbara Górzyńska. Emma is currently studying with Jeff Nelsen at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In addition to her studies with Warren Gref, she has been able to take lessons from, or perform in masterclasses given by: Kristy Morrell, Daniel Katzen, Keith Popejoy, David Cooper, Dale Clevenger, Denise Tryon, Elizabeth Freimuth, Josh Phillips, and Julie Landsman. Emma, wanting to be well rounded in all subjects, has decided to pursue a certificate in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, with a focus in Environmental Ethics and Justice at Indiana University. The study of disenfranchised communities in the environmental world lead her to become passionate about supporting and advocating for underserved and underrepresented communities in the world of classical music. Since discovering this passion, she put on a recital to donate to arts organization, raising over $150, co-wrote a Call of Action to the Jacobs School of Music to become more diverse and inclusive in their curriculum, hiring, and programming, and co-founded the Jacobs School Student Representative Committee Diversity and Equity Task Force. |