Emi Ostrom enjoys a varied career as a mezzo-soprano, oboist and composer. She first became interested in early music when she joined the Renaissance choir, Collegium Musicum, at Oberlin Conservatory. From there, she went on to obtain a master’s in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing at the University of York (UK), performing three recitals of SSATB madrigals and motets by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Schütz, Schein, Byrd, and Tallis. Since moving to New York, Emi has sung with acclaimed ensembles including The English Concert, The Art of Early Keyboard (ARTEK), Brick Presbyterian Church Choir, St. Vincent of Ferrer Choir, St. James Church Compostela Choir, and The Lux Choir at Princeton University. She is the soprano soloist at Grace Episcopal Church in White Plains, and looks forward to her operatic debut as Anna in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with New York Opera Forum in May 2026.
As an oboist, Emi can be heard playing historical oboes and recorders around the country with ensembles such as Seraphic Fire, Clarion, Early Music New York, New York Baroque Incorporated, American Classical Orchestra, GEMS Concerts and Holy Trinity Bach Vespers. Her 2025-26 season includes Bach’s B Minor Mass (Jubilate Baroque Orchestra), Haydn’s Seven Last Words (Kollective366), Handel’s Messiah (Dalton Chorale and Church of the Transfiguration), and Bach’s St. John Passion (West Side Presbyterian Church and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church). She is an alumnus of the Juilliard Historical Performance Program, having performed dozens of concerts with Juilliard415 and collaborated with Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, Les Arts Florissants, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Music New Zealand and Music Before 1800.
Since 2023, Emi has been the Chair of Creative Musicianship and Composition at the Thurnauer School of Music, where she teaches composition and musicianship classes. This year, she is spearheading several major events: five of her students will perform their original music during a silent film screening at the Barrymore Film Center; a dozen new student compositions will be premiered at the Composition Recital, and dozens of students will demonstrate their music theory skills at the annual Musicianship Madness event. Emi also teaches music theory at School for Strings and serves on the summer faculty at the Walden School Young Musicians Program. In March 2026, a choir and orchestra of nearly 200 musicians premiered her composition “Higher and Higher,” commissioned for the 2026 Thurnauer Gift of Music Concert honoring director emerita Dorothy Roffman.
