Emi Ferguson: Flute Sonatas

Emi Ferguson is a creative artist expanding the classical music world. A flute player, singer, composer, arranger, radio host, and writer, Emi has always been excited about finding new ways for people to embrace classical music. This concept is core to her work as founder and artistic director of the ensemble, Exquisite Corpse, a collective dedicated to music and art that resists easy categorization. Its projects reimagine works of the past, revive forgotten voices, reframe classics, and bring history vividly back to life while also fostering new collisions amongst today’s composers, performers, and creators across disciplines.

Emi is passionate about making classical music more accessible and relevant. She has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including The Discovery Channel, Netflix’s Explained (Vox), Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and New York’s radio station, WQXR talking about how music relates to our world today.  

As a radio host and programmer, Emi first started working with New York’s WQXR as a member of their Artist Propulsion Lab, developing the podcast series This Composer Is SICK! with Max Fine that explored the impact of Syphilis on composers Franz Schubert, Bedřich Smetana, and Scott Joplin as a way to highlight contemporary surges in Syphilis cases. She is also a host for WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, a weekly show highlighting fantastic young classical musicians, as well as the host for Once Upon A Composer, a series created for the youngest of radio listeners, introducing them to music through exciting stories about composers. Her book Iconic Composers co-written with Nicholas Csicsko and featuring artwork by David Csicsko, introduces music lovers of all ages to 50 incredible Western Classical composers from the past 1000 years.

Emi’s recordings celebrate her fascination with reinvigorating music and instruments of the past for the present. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th-century French court, was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending four weeks on the classical, classical crossover, and world music Billboard charts. Her 2019 album Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, a collaboration with continuo band Ruckus, debuted at #1 on the iTunes classical charts and #2 on the Billboard classical charts, and was called “blindingly impressive … a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” by The New York Times. Emi’s discography also includes releases on Decca Records, Verve Records, New Focus Records, Old Focus Records, Orchid Classics, Canteloupe Music, National Sawdust Tracks, Brontosaurus Records, Coro, and MSR Classics.

A 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Emi thrives as both a soloist and a collaborator, appearing at major festivals and concert halls around the world. She performs regularly with AMOC*, Ruckus, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society (where she is principal flute), the Manhattan Chamber Players, and as the music director of Camerata Pacifica Baroque. Recent collaborations include projects with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, composer Michael Hersch, harpist Ashley Jackson, pianists Dan Tepfer and Reed Tetzlof, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, composer Roscoe Mitchell, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Chamber music and it’s spirit of collaboration has been at the heart of Emi’s artistic journey with experiences at festivals like Marlboro, Lucerne, Ojai, Bach Virtuosi, and June in Buffalo deepening her ability to listen, respond, and create dialogue in front of and within an ensemble. Emi’s ability to connect through music has resonated in some of the world’s most meaningful moments. Her performance of Amazing Grace at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of 9/11 at Ground Zero alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and James Taylor was broadcast globally and is now part of the permanent collection at the 9/11 Museum.

Emi became the first student to earn Undergraduate and Graduate degrees with Scholastic Distinction (for her simultaneous studies in Epidemiology) in flute performance at The Juilliard School. She later earned a second Graduate degree in Historical Performance as the only flutist accepted into Juilliard’s inaugural Historical Performance class as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.

As an educator, Emi has taught on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the Bach Virtuosi Festival, and the University at Buffalo in addition to being sought after for masterclasses at universities around the country. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York.