Steven Emery

My goal as a teacher is to encourage my students to awaken their own talent, to discover, develop, and refine their skills, to cultivate and clarify their artistic vision, and to learn to evoke a sense of wonder in those who hear them play.

Steve Emery joined the Conservatory in 1988 and is a professor of trumpet.

Emery began playing the trumpet at the age of 11, and within two years he started a Dixieland band and was playing professionally. Throughout college and graduate school, he was very active in the pop music scene in New York, after which he began teaching at the University of Missouri–Kansas City in 1976. While teaching, he continued working as a pop, jazz, and commercial recording artist in Kansas City. He was invited to join the trumpet section of the Kansas City Philharmonic and served as second/utility trumpet and eventually as assistant principal trumpet. He earned the co-principal trumpet position at Columbus Symphony, where he served as acting principal trumpet for seven years. In 1988 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a member of the trumpet section.

In 1974, Emery earned a B.M. with honors in trumpet performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music under the instruction of Gene Young. He then became a teaching assistant at the Ohio State University, where he earned an M.M. with honors in trumpet performance and studied under Richard Burkart. Following the completion of his academic degrees, Emery continued his study through master classes with Vincent Cichowicz as well as an occasional lesson with Adolph Herseth.

Emery remains active as an educator, soloist, and clinician and performs regularly with Greater Boston arts organizations such as Boston Ballet and with his wife, Deborah DeWolf Emery, who is a professional accompanist. Emery is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College, and he maintains a private teaching studio in Braintree, Massachusetts.