About
Bay Area violinist Emily Botel earned her Bachelor of Music degree with Academic Honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music. At CIM she studied with renowned pedagogues David Updegraff and Linda Cerone. Emily earned her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with award winning soloist and chamber musician Ian Swensen. Receiving the Mary W. Parks Memorial Scholarship and Julius and Sophie Schmiedl Memorial Scholarship for study at CIM, Emily has received many honors and awards including the Matinee Music Club of Philadelphia Instrumental Prize and the 2010 Mu Phi Epsilon Cleveland Heights Chapter Scholarship Award.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Emily began studying violin at age 8. She has since performed throughout North America and Europe and in recitals in the US and England. She has appeared as a soloist in master classes given by artists such as Andres Cardenas, Hagai Shaham, Daniel Phillips, Diane Monroe, Oliver Steiner, and Ida Levin. In Philadelphia, Cleveland, and now San Francisco, Emily frequently brings her talents to nursing homes, retirement facilities, and hospitals. She loves doing educational performances in schools and she strongly believes in the importance of bringing music to her local community.
Emily has held Concertmaster positions with the SFCM Conservatory Orchestra, the CIM Orchestra, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, and the Settlement Chamber Orchestra as well as Assistant Concertmaster with the Banff Festival Orchestra and at the National Orchestral Institute. She has also performed with the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, the Mansfield Symphony, the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Ann Chamber Orchestra.
Emily studied baroque violin with Julie Andrijeski and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She is an active early music performer and founding member of the baroque ensemble, MUSA. Enjoying a variety of musical genres, she also seeks out opportunities to play contemporary works. Emily has performed with the SFCM New Music Ensemble and has performed in the CIM New Music Series, working with contemporary composers including David Rakowski and Claude Baker. She explores non-classical settings as well, having performed at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and on recordings for bands like Weezer.
Emily’s greatest passion is performing chamber music. She has studied chamber music with Mark Sokol, Jodi Levitz, Ian Swensen, the Cavani Quartet, Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet, the Zemlinksy Quartet, Carolyn Gadiel Warner, Sidney Curtiss, and Sandra Carlock. Emily has performed with chamber ensembles in master classes given by Norman Fischer, Jerome Lowenthal, Ricardo Morales, Gryphon Trio, St. Petersburg Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Mendelssohn Quartet, London Haydn Quartet, and the Pacifica Quartet. She has been a participant at many summer festivals such as Encore School for Strings, The International Music Academy Pilsen, Czech Republic, the National Orchestral Institute and Festival, the Banff Music and Sound Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar and Spoleto Festival USA.