Emma Ramsay Steele

My education: Bachelor of Music from Carnegie Mellon University with Cyrus Forough, and my other teachers have been Stacia Spencer, Mimi Zweig, and Aaron Rosand.

My favourite musical composition: My favorite symphony is Beethoven No.7, and my favorite opera is Barber of Seville.

My greatest musical experience: I will never forget playing Beethoven Symphony 7 with my youth orchestra when I was 15. We were on tour in Europe where I got to experience European culture for the first time, and we had practiced so much for those concerts. The symphony was so full of life and rhythmic drive, and got me to love and understand the composer on a new level. It’s also when I began to realize that playing in orchestra is what I want to do.

My most memorable/funny/unusual experience in the Kapel: I loved playing Suor Angelica in 2015 with Giuliano Carella conducting. I love all the Puccini operas but this one especially is so heart-wrenching and tragic. There were times that members of the orchestra had tears streaming down their face while playing. I felt the music and the emotion coincide and every single person was in sync and playing together as one. Those are the moments that we have been training for our whole lives.

When I’m not playing in the Kapel: I love to play chamber music as well, and outside of music I often go to yoga or swimming. I love to watch Game of Thrones, and my favorite book these days is Persuasion by Jane Austen which I am rereading.