INTERVIEW
What would you do if you weren’t a musician? I would have liked to have been a Marine biologist.
What’s the last book you read?Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
What are you most looking forward to right now? My next concert with the MCO.
What is the best thing about being a musician? The best thing about being a musician is being able to communicate and interact with people no matter what language they speak.
What do you do before a performance? Eat a banana and practice the Alexander Technique.
BIOGRAPHY
Emma Schied was awarded a scholarship to study with Celia Nicklin, Douglas Boyd and Christine Pendrill at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated with First Class Honours.
She then studied at the Geneva Conservatoire de Musique with world-renowned teacher Maurice Bourgue.
Upon graduating, Emma was awarded a first prize with distinction, and in the same year won the Raymonnd Weil Prize. In 2004, she was nominated by Claudio Abbado for the European Förderpreis, which she was awarded. She has also won Her Royal Highness Princess Alice Prize, the Leila Bull Prize, the Macklin Bursary, and the John West Prize.
Emma is a founding member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with which she has played since 1997. In 2003 she became solo English horn in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and, in 2009, solo oboe in the Budapest Festival Orchestra. She has been a member of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra since April 2016 and was solo Cor anglais at the Bayerischer Staatsoper from 2019 to 2021.
Emma is also a guest principal oboe and guest principal English horn in prestigious orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, Swedish Radio Orchestra, and the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra.
Emma has played with the Ensemble Paris Bastille and The Sabine Meyer Ensemble. She has also taught and coached musicians all over the world and is currently part of the Feel The Music programme, developed by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for hearing-impaired children.