BIO

Pianist

Sonata in A Major Op. 2 No. 20:00

Described as “dazzling” and “scintillating,” (Classical Source) and lauded for her “beautiful singing lines” and performances filled with “drama and energy” (Joan Tower), pianist Emiko Edwards continues to captivate audiences with her sincere musical interpretations and wide variety of tonal color.

Edwards’s international performing career has taken her across North America, Europe, and Asia, where she has had the pleasure of appearing in such prized concert venues as Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall (London), and Universidad de Laboral (Spain). A champion of modern music and composers of our day, Edwards holds a number of BBC credits to her name. Her performances of works by Henryk Gorecki and Richard Rodney Bennett have received international acclaim and have all been recorded for and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Additional highlights include the Philadelphia premier of the Joan Tower Piano Concerto (Homage to Beethoven), her Lincoln Center debut performing all-Copland "One has rarely heard a pianist bring out so many of the nuances latent in Copland's piano music...[an] exceptional meeting between composer and musician," (New York Classical Review) and the American premier of an original composition by Karen Lefrak at the David H. Koch Theater in collaboration with members of the NYC Ballet &

American Ballet Theater. Equally at home with both modern and standard repertoire, concerto engagements include those with the Guildhall Brass Ensemble, Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, Bravura Philharmonic, Temple University Symphony, Manalapan Battleground, New Sussex Symphony, and Westfield Symphony Orchestras.

A staunch advocate for American music, Edwards's recent and upcoming American programming includes the all-Copland recital at NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (the concert included a Copland sketch gifted to the library by choreographer Agnes de Mille), an invitation to appear on 90.1 WRTI’s “Steinway Week” (Four Piano Blues, Aaron Copland), her Chicago recital debut presented by American Music Project performing lesser-known piano music by American composers (Meredith Monk, Georg Rochberg, Leon Kirchner, William Grant Still, Leo Ornstein, Jennifer Higdon, Paul Creston, and Aaron Copland), guest artist and clinician at the Music School of Delaware’s Summer Piano Institute (masterclass and all-American recital—Copland, Beach, Bonds, Crumb, and Price), and a duo piano recital at the Ukranian Educational and Cultural Center (Jenkintown, PA) performing music written by Ukranian and American composers. Her music video—Ballade, op. 6, Amy Beach (released in November 2023) is an ode to the Boston-born composer as well as a vintage straight-strung Steinway housed in the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Built in 1895, just one year after the Ballade was written, the piano is signed by Paderewski, “This piano is a marvel,” and would later belong to the Juilliard family from 1914-1937. In addition to highlighting the works of American composers, Edwards also enjoys presenting both canonic and non-canonic repertoire through thematic and educational concerts (i.g. “Homage,” a program centered around composers celebrating composers--Manuel de Falla: Homenaje “Pour le Tombeau de Debussy”, J.S. Bach: Concerto in D minor after Alessandro Marcello, BWV 974, Clara Schuman: Variations on a Theme by Schumann, op. 20, Claude Debussy: Image Book 1: II. Hommage a Rameau, and Ferruccio Busoni: Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004).

In addition to airtime in the UK, footage of Edwards’s performances and interviews have been broadcast on television and radio throughout the United States. She is featured in two documentaries, On a Personal Note and "Piano Forte": The Julia Crane International Piano Competition, both which have aired nationally on PBS. She has won numerous awards at both the national and international level, winning first prize at age eleven in the 18th International Young Artist Competition (Washington, D.C.), before subsequently taking prizes at the France Music Competition, Bachauer Scholarship Competition, Princeton Festival Piano Competition, Cape Vincent International Piano Competition, Julia Crane International Piano Competition, 5 Towns Music & Art Foundation Competition, The New York International Piano Competition, and the Music Teacher’s National Association Competitions. She is currently a national finalist for The American Prize (2024). She has been the recipient of numerous grants and scholarships (Linklaters, James Gibb, Banff Centre, Orford Arts Centre, Nelly Ben-Or Trust) for which she is eternally grateful and has been chosen to appear in public masterclasses with world-renown artists and pedagogues such as Steven Kovacevich, Marc Durand, Robert McDonald, Andre Michel Schub, Joseph Kalichstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Nelly Ben-Or MBE, John Perry, and Jacques Rouvier.

An avid advocate for outreach and community, Edwards was the artistic director of The Five Boroughs Performing Arts Series, a concert series put on in partnership with the Boys Club of New York that was dedicated to the spread of dance, drama, and music throughout New York City. Her interest in social justice extended to her work convening, lecturing, and performing in “She Persisted-Women in Music, Then and Now,” a full day symposium on women composers, in partnership with Paley Library and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program at Temple University, and her research. Her monograph titled, “Gendered Trends in Piano Performance: A Study of Women Pianists,” discusses the inherent gendering of classical music repertoire, as well as the gendered narratives specific to piano performance culture in the Northeast. It features 70 years of subscription season data (1950-2019) collected from the New York Philharmonic archives, as well as the analysis of documented interviews, historical and contemporary New York Times reviews, and magazine articles featured in the Clavier Companion/Piano Magazine (2010-2019) and Etude (1950-1957).” Her paper can be found listed and summarized in the 2023 edition of The Pianist’s Bookshelf (Indiana University Press) alongside books written by Glenn Gould, David Dubal, and Charles Rosen under “Educators, Innovators, Performers, Teachers, and Writers.” In 2022, Edwards was among those selected to attend “Rethinking Women’s Work in Music,” a workshop hosted by Bangor University (UK) on women’s work in higher education where participants presented on and engaged in topics related to gender inequities in music.

Edwards was awarded her degrees from The Juilliard School (BM), Guildhall School of Music and Drama (MPerf, Artist Diploma), and Temple University (DMA), where she had the pleasure of studying with Julian Martin, Ronan O’Hora, Sara Davis Buechner, and Lambert Orkis. She is in high demand as an educator and adjudicator and has taught and mentored students at The Juilliard School and Temple University. Currently, she teaches piano performance and chamber music at Saint Joseph’s University and heads the piano department at Luzerne Music Center’s Junior Session. A summer music program for burgeoning young musicians Luzerne Music Center regularly hosts world- renown guest artists and composers such as Midori, Leonard Slatkin, Bruce Brubeck, John Corigliano, George Crumb, and Joan Tower. A passionate educator both in the classroom and on the concert stage, Edwards can be found discussing her work as a performer and teacher on the classical music podcast Orchestrating Your Career, Episode #5 “Figuring Out Your Purpose as an Artist,” with host Rebekah Carpio (Spotify, Amazon Music).