Irish-born Emma Downes enjoys a vibrant and varied life as a violinist, choral singer, and music educator. She completed her MA in Classical String Performance at the University of Limerick in 2018, studying with Katherine Hunka, and is currently based in Paris, where she studies with Sharon Roffman. As a freelance violinist, Emma has performed in Ireland with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, and in France with the Paris Chamber Music Circle and Orchestre des Jeunes d’Île-de-France. She has participated in festivals including the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, the Trans-Siberian Festival in Lille, and the Camerata Ireland Academy at Clandeboye, and received masterclasses with renowned violinists including Carolin Widmann, Elina Vähälä, and Chloe Hanslip.

Emma is especially passionate about early years music education and is currently qualifying as a Colourstrings Music Kindergarten teacher, a method based on Kodaly principles. She works with Petit Paris Playgroup, leading bilingual musical playgroups for children under 5. An avid choral singer, Emma has sung with Eurochoir, Voci Nuove, and the Irish Youth Chamber Choir, with whom she travelled to Toronto for Bloomsday in 2016. She is a founding member of Comhar (Irish for collaboration), a collective which aims both to provide performance platforms for young musicians, and to bring classical music to more remote parts of Ireland.

Emma also enjoys creating string arrangements of music of all kinds, and posted videos of many of these on Facebook during lockdown in 2020 as part of her “Quarantunes” series.