EMI FERGUSON
EMI loves to make music. That's pretty much it, but if you want a little more proof look no further than the hours of cassette tapes she burned through as a five-year-old, performing her heart out for no one but her younger sister.
Since then, she's brought her love of music and performing to wider audiences around the globe, sharing the stage as a flute player, singer, and composer with performers including Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and four U.S. Presidents, (though her inner teenager will tell you her career highlight was being called on stage to sing Oops I Did It Again at a Britney Spears concert.) You can catch one of EMI's future performances by checking out the LIVE link.
EMI loves to collaborate with other artists and learn about and absorb new kinds of music from around the world - she was born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, but moved to New York to study at The Juilliard School where she was hired upon graduation to the Ear Training faculty, where she makes faces like this (Britney taught EMI a lot), while torturing willing students in their quest for the best ears ever.
For a complete bio with all of the serious bells and whistles included, click here.
To listen to 5 year old EMI do dramatic readings about animals click here.
RECENT PROJECTS
August 18th, 2022
At one point, I seriously considered going into Epidemiology full time. While that didn’t happen, it’s still something that I’m very passionate about, so when WQXR gave me the opportunity to combine my interest in disease with music in podcast form, I jumped! And...voilà! New series with WQXR out now! Episode 1 of 4, all delving into the impact of Syphilis on composers Franz Schubert, Bedrich Smetana, and Scott Joplin!
July 29th, 2022
Of course the most famous Aqualung is Jethro Tull's iconic flute rock legend. This Aqualung is my arrangement of Michael Hersch's solo violin arrangement of Orlando Gibbons' "O Lord I Life My Heart to Thee" Gibbons' original is for 5 voices which Hersch reduces for double stopped solo violin. Upon hearing this solo violin version performed I was captivated and immediately wanted to challenge myself to see if I could make a version of Hersch's arrangement for solo flute. Thus - Aqualung - singing while playing the flute - an attempt to recreate Hersch's and Gibbons' beautiful and other worldly harmony.
February 1st, 2022
Emi joins WQXR's 2022 Artist Propulsion Lab - It’s an honor to be a featured artist in WQXR’s 2022 Artist Propulsion Lab! I love what they’re doing to support the future of classical music. I’m so excited to pursue my projects across their platforms, share new recordings, commission new work, perform in The Greene Space, and more!
November 18th, 2021
Virtuoso flutist Emi Ferguson joins Les Délices for a program of riveting chamber works from the eve of the French and Haitian Revolutions. Inspired by philosophical ideals of liberty and equality and early abolitionist writing, we pair works by Joseph Bologne Chevalier de St. Georges and Luigi Boccherini with a new work by Hai