Violin
Brief info
Violinist Emelyn Bashour is a member of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Flint. She has participated in selective fellowship programs such as Orpheus@Mannes, Vermont Mozart Festival, National Orchestral Institute, and the Aspen Music Festival. She has been a member of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra since 2018, where she served as concertmaster for flagship productions of Salome and La Bohème and was engaged as a featured soloist for the 2020 season. She has also served as assistant concertmaster of the Opera in the Ozarks Orchestra and as a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, and upcoming engagements this season include a guest appearance as assistant concertmaster with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Her primary teachers include Aaron Berofsky, Renée Jolles, and Lynn Chang, and she has performed in masterclasses for many esteemed artists including Midori, Julian Rachlin, Xiang Gao, Lina Yu, Peter Schuhmayer, and Olga Kaler, and members of the Takacs, Ying, Aizuri, and Calidore string quartets.
As a soloist and chamber player, Emelyn is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. She was featured on the Emerging Artists series at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival as part of the New Music Workshop, has performed with members of International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Eighth Blackbird, and JACK Quartet, and has worked with eminent composers including Tyshawn Sorey, Nico Muhly, David Lang, and Andrea Clearfield. She was a featured guest performer at Central Michigan University’s New Music Symposium with ÆPEX Contemporary Performance, and with UMich’s Contemporary Directions Ensemble has performed as part of New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music series and the Great Performances series at the Toledo Museum of Art. She can be heard on John Luther Adams’ Sila: The Breath of the World, released September 2022 on Cantaloupe Music, and on an upcoming release by Netherlands-based composer Remi Inari. Emelyn also performs frequently with cellist Josh DeVries as contemporary-focused string duo Parataxis; recent engagements include the Tiny TOPs series of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and Third Place [MusicFest].
Emelyn holds a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, a B.A. in English literature from University of Rochester, and an M.M. from University of Michigan. During her studies she served as concertmaster of U-M’s University Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman Philharmonia, and she is also an alum of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School where she was assistant concertmaster of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. She is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at Michigan State University as a teaching assistant in the studio of Yvonne Lam, where she is also concertmaster of the MSU Symphony Orchestra and the Musique21 contemporary ensemble. She also runs The Philomel Project (www.philomelproject.com), an online database of solo and chamber works by women composers aimed at increasing accessibility for student musicians.
When not playing violin, Emelyn enjoys writing string quartet arrangements, rewatching Lord of the Rings, and spending time with her two-year old tabby Margaret Catwood (Maggie for short).