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Emily's Biography

Emily Olson's professional music career and personal artistic pursuits have revolved around mindful expression: performing, creating, teaching, advocating, coaching, fostering, and exploring.

 

Emily has enjoyed decades of experience as a classical flutist,  performing regularly with the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Michigan Sinfonietta, and in musical theatre productions for the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre and Encore Musical Theatre Company. Summer music performances have brought Emily to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she has appeared with the Pine Mountain Music Festival and Strings on the Bay chamber music series. She has coached sectionals and chamber music for multiple school districts and maintained a private studio of flute students for over 25 years.

 

Broadening her music experience with additional training in voice, harp, and ukulele, Emily served for many years as a Certified Music Practitioner in hospice and palliative care settings and working to promote the field of therapeutic music in healthcare. Emily's imagination and innovative thinking have also been honed in administrative positions for various arts organizations, especially in the five years she worked in admissions, student services and career counseling for prospective and current students at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

 

Much of Emily's music work has been informed by additional forms of artistic expression through classical and social dance, acting, choreographing and directing Broadway musical theatre productions, and hatha yoga and authentic movement practice. She is an avid writer, with a dedicated journaling practice and experience writing poetry, prose, and technical processes. Since childhood, Emily has incorporated visual, graphic, and traditional arts as forms of expression - drawing, painting, calligraphy, graphic, web, and database design, photography, furniture restoration, working with textiles, jewelry-making, and gardening.

 

Over the course of 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, as well as through studying the Alexander Technique, Authentic Movement, Body Mapping, Dalcroze Eurythmics, Ennegram, and Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education. Emily's interest in the role of expression and mindfulness in health and wellness 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 fostered by her spiritual journey, which can be characterized by lifelong curiosity, an unbound pursuit of wisdom, and a constant longing to evolve.

 

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Education & Training

Professional Experience

  • Arts & Mindfulness Coach (since 2019)

  • Professional Flutist and Music Educator (since 1995)

  • Therapeutic Musician with the Beaumont Health System (2017-2019) and University of Michigan Health System (2016-2018)

  • Private Yoga and Meditation Teacher (since 2016)

  • Musician, Companion, and Caregiver Relief Volunteer with Arbor Hospice (2015-2017)

  • Senior Admissions Counselor with the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (2009-2013)

  • Actor, Director, and Choreographer with the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre (2001-2014)

  • Lay Chaplain & Prayer Minister with the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor (2003-2008)

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