Arts + Mindfulness

Emily Olson’s professional music career and personal artistic life have always centered on mindful expression—performing, creating, teaching, advocating, coaching, fostering, and exploring.

​

As a classical flutist, Emily has spent decades performing with the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Michigan Sinfonietta, and in musical theatre productions with the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre and the Encore Musical Theatre Company. Her summer work has taken her to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she has appeared with the Pine Mountain Music Festival and the Strings on the Bay chamber music series. She has coached sectionals and chamber ensembles for numerous school districts and maintained a private flute studio for more than 25 years. Currently, Emily is the Artistic Director for Beacon Arts Michigan, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting communities through shared artistry.

​

Emily’s musical life has been enriched by additional training in voice, harp, and ukulele, as well as her years of service as a Certified Music Practitioner in hospice and palliative care settings. Her commitment to the healing potential of music also extended to administrative roles in arts organizations, including five years supporting admissions, student services, and career counseling at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

​

Her artistic expression reaches far beyond music. Emily has explored classical and social dance, acting, choreographing, and directing musical theatre productions. She is a dedicated writer with a long-standing journaling practice and experience in poetry, prose, and technical writing. Since childhood, she has embraced visual and tactile forms of creativity—drawing, painting, calligraphy, graphic and web design, photography, furniture restoration, textiles, jewelry-making, and gardening.

​

Throughout her career, Emily has cultivated a holistic approach to mindful awareness by integrating music, sound, movement, writing, storytelling, and visual art with meditation practices from multiple wisdom traditions. Her work is further informed by studies in the Alexander Technique, Authentic Movement, Body Mapping, Dalcroze Eurythmics, the Enneagram, and the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education. Her interest in the relationship between expression, embodiment, and well‑being has led to certifications in Therapeutic Music, RYT 200 Yoga Teacher Training, Trauma & Body‑Based Awareness, and Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies.

​

Emily’s depth and breadth of artistry have been shaped by a lifelong curiosity, a devotion to learning, and a continual desire to evolve. Her work reflects a belief in creativity as a pathway to presence, resilience, and authentic connection.