Em Singleton (b. 2002) is a composer, violist, writer, and linguist from Gainesville, Florida. Em’s debut performance was at the age of 5 for a house concert audience including a massive yellow lab who wanted the attention more than Em did. Em’s recent work has focused on specific interaction of timbre, gesture, noise, representing physical textures, and intersections of poetry, linguistics, and music. They are a Jacobs Scholar at Indiana University Bloomington pursuing undergraduate studies in music composition, viola, and linguistics, studying composition with Sky Macklay, Aaron Travers, Han Lash, and David Dzubay, and viola with Atar Arad. In 2023 they received a Teaching Internship Grant from Hutton Honors College for their work in the Linguistics department, and were invited to participate in the 2023 IU 48 Hours collaboration with Hub New Music.
Em has recorded and premiered live-to-picture Daniel Whitworth’s score for the 2022 Jon Vickers Film Scoring Award at the IU Cinema, as part of the Library of Congress’ restoration of Phil for Short in Kino Lorber’s “Cinema’s First Nasty Women” collection. With the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra, they performed William Grant Still’s opera Highway 1 USA and premiered Don Freund’s Urban Pastorale. They have also been part of Indiana University’s Conductors Orchestra. In Fall 2022 they played in the pit for the IU Theater Department’s production of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and in spring 2023 premiered Shulamit Ran’s opera Anne Frank with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra. They made an acting debut in IU’s 2022 production of L’Étoile. In Spring 2024, their orchestration of David Davila’s new work Vox Pop! A Post-Democratic Musical runs for eight IU Theatre shows in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre.
Em’s works have been performed at Indiana University’s Grunwald Gallery, University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Penn State, University of Florida, Princeton University’s Taplin Auditorium, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Petaluma Arts Center, Historic Thomas Center, St. Augustine Music Festival, and Shapeshifter Lab. Their work has been played by Matchstick Percussion, Mimi Stillman, Face the Music, Elisa Sutherland, Gainesville Civic Chorus, Alachua County Youth Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and World Youth Wind Symphony. Em has participated in Interlochen Arts Camp, Curtis Summerfest, Wildflower Composers Festival, Sō Percussion Collaborative Workshop and Summer Institute, and NYO-USA. Upcoming projects include a Hutton Honors College-funded commission of a new percussion work for Drew Neal. In June 2024, Em is serving as a Stone Fellow for the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, writing a new work for the Hesper String Quartet.