In June 2024, Emma graduated with honors from Northwestern University with her M.M. in Voice & Opera. Highlights of her degree included Erste Dame in Northwestern Opera Theatre’s Die Zauberflöte; Der Trommler in an AI-infused Der Kaiser von Atlantis under the baton of Alarm Will Sound’s Alan Pierson; and Mutter in Hänsel und Gretel. In May 2023, she rejoined the Lyric Opera of Chicago as part of their Lyric Unlimited initiative, covering the dual role of Sally Smith/Isis in the children’s opera The Scorpion’s Sting. In fall 2024, she took part in Rivendell Theatre Ensemble’s workshop of Nina/Violetta by Monica West as the “voice” of Violetta (while self-accompanying on the piano). 

In the 2021-22 season, Emma was slated to join the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up, though the production ultimately fell victim to a wave of COVID-19 cancellations. That February, she participated in Lyric’s workshop of Caroline Shaw’s Four Portraits, part of a trio of new one-acts to be presented in the 2022/23 season under the title Proximity. June 2022 marked her third consecutive season as an apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she portrayed Cobweb in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  

Emma received her B.M. from Northwestern University (cum laude 2020). While there, she appeared frequently with Northwestern Opera Theatre, most notably as Mother in the Chicago premiere of David T. Little’s Dog Days, directed by Joachim Schamberger and conducted by Alan Pierson. Previously with Northwestern Opera Theatre, she performed as Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Héro in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict under the baton of maestro Patrick Furrer. She served as assistant director for Northwestern’s spring 2020 film production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo (and made a cameo as a very flustered nurse).

From 2017-2020, Emma was a member of the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble under the baton of two-time Grammy winner Donald Nally, performing the works of Caroline Shaw, Christopher Cerrone, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Gabriel Jackson, among others. With BCE, Emma performed in Chicago Opera Theater’s concert presentation of Justine F. Chen’s The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing conducted by maestra Lidiya Yankovskaya. 

As an actor, Emma’s Northwestern theater credits include Into the Woods (The Witch), Parade (Iola Stover), and Company (Vocal Minority). Most recently, she performed in the developmental production of Hans Christian Andersen, Tim McDonald’s musical adaptation of the 1952 film with music by Frank Loesser. She’s also collaborated with the American Music Theatre Project on workshops of Marie in Tomorrowland  (Erato A. Kremmyda and Maggie-Kate Coleman, dir. Sam Pinkleton) and Something in the Game (Buddy Farmer and Michael Mahler, dir. David Bell). 

Emma hails from Woodbine, MD and now splits her time between New Orleans, LA, where she works with the New Orleans Opera, and New York City.