Emily Daggett Smith, Violin

Biography

Violinist Emily Daggett Smith is rapidly emerging as one of the most compelling artists of her generation.  In 2009, Ms. Smith won first place in the Juilliard concerto competition and made her New York concerto debut in Alice Tully Hall, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra, under the direction of Emmanuel Villaume.

As an active chamber musician, Ms. Smith has performed with such artists as Edward Arron, Andrés Diaz, Claude Frank, Joseph Kalichstein, Erin Keefe, Ida Levin, Richard ONeill, Daniel Phillips, Orion Weiss, and Eugenia Zukerman, in venues including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill and Zankel Halls, Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Symphony Space in New York.  In the summer of 2010, Ms. Smith appeared for the first time at the Seattle Chamber Music Society.  Since then, she has been reengaged by the festival repeatedly.  All performances from the festival have been broadcast live on Classical King FM.  In addition to her numerous performances on the series as a violinist, she made her debut as a violist this past winter.  Ms. Smith has performed at various other festivals including Banff International Masterclasses, Kneisel Hall, The Orpheus Institute at the Juilliard School, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar.  

Ms. Smith is a founding member of the West End Trio with pianist Michael Brown and cellist Matthew Zalkind, with whom she performed Ravel's Piano Trio in Alice Tully Hall in April, 2010.  Ms. Smith is also the founding first violinist of the Tessera Quartet, an emerging New York-based ensemble.  Highlights of the 2009-10 season included a New York debut on the New School (Schneider) Concerts series, a special project with British pianist Hamish Milne at the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and a centennial concert honoring composer and Renaissance scholar Harold Brown.  The Quartet has also performed on the Tri-I Noon Recital Series at Rockefeller University.  They have performed with pianists Claude Frank and Orion Weiss, as well as pianist/ composer Lowell Liebermann, whose Piano Quintet and String Quartet No. 4 they frequently perform.

Ms. Smith has performed as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of James DePreist, Nicholas McGegan, Jeffrey Milarsky, Leonard Slatkin, and Michael Tilson-Thomas. She has traveled with the orchestra to Beijing and Shanghai, as well as across the United States, performing in such venues as Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Ms. Smith regularly performs throughout New York City with various ensembles.  
She was recently invited to perform with Ensemble ACJW, in a concert at Zankel Hall conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, with soloists Christian Tetzlaff and Barbara Hannigan, and will appear again with the ensemble under David Robertson.  She also frequently performs with the Grammy-nominated Metropolis Ensemble, most recently in an innovative Brownstone concert, in which ten musicians performed in different areas of a three-story Brownstone in a site-specific electro-acoustic composition/installation (metropolisensemble.org).  She is also a member of the New York Classical Players, a chamber orchestra currently in its inaugural season; highlights include performances with cellist Mark Kosower, soprano Jung-Nan Yoon and violinist Alex Kerr.  

Ms. Smith is dedicated to teaching and outreach.  She has a small private studio in New York, and has taught violin lessons at Greenwood Music Camp in the Junior Division, as well as being an assistant chamber music coach at Kneisel Hall Young Musicians Program.  She has participated in the Gluck Community Service Fellowship at the Juilliard School, where she performed at many hospitals and youth centers throughout New York.  She has also performed as a member of the Outreach Quartet at Kneisel Hall.  

Born in 1987, Ms. Smith grew up in the Boston area. She won various competitions in New England and performed violin concerti with the Brockton, Newton, and Waltham symphonies. In 2005, her piano trio won Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in the junior division. She has appeared on PBS's national broadcast, Live from Lincoln Center, as well as twice on NPR's From the Top. For nine summers she attended Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts, which fostered her deep love of chamber music. In honor of Greenwood's 75th anniversary, Ms. Smith performed Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with the Greenwood orchestra at the Hatch Shell in Boston.

In 2009 Ms. Smith received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she is now pursuing graduate studies. She is also a recipient of the prestigious Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Scholarship, and as a result participated in a chamber music tour of Japan with three fellow students, as well as performing Schoenberg's Verklerte Nacht at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris in a special collaboration with the Paris Conservatoire and the University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna.  Her teachers have included Ronald Copes, Nick Eanet, Joel Smirnoff, Laurie Smukler, Masuko Ushioda, and Donald Weilerstein.  

Ms. Smith lives in New York City.