Music Director & Conductor

Originally from Chicago, Emma is a conductor, composer, and singer with a passion for connecting musicians of different backgrounds and experiences through choral music. She is a founding member of Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, an organization made up of singers, composers, and conductors who share artistic responsibility and perform new music. Today, she sings, conducts, and composes with C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in NYC, the choir after which Triad was modeled. She has most recently served as Choral Instructor at King School in Stamford, CT, as well as assistant conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Children’s Chorus for its 2020 production of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, and conductor at Chicago Sinai Congregation.

Emma’s compositions have been performed by choirs at Jacksonville University, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square, and other college, synagogue, and church choirs from Boston to Los Angeles. As a vocalist, she has performed both solo and ensemble work in the Midwest and on the East Coast, including with St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, CT, St. James Cathedral Choir of Chicago, Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, and Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs.

Emma holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Tufts University in Medford, MA. She is thrilled to begin pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts in the fall.

Pianist, Accompanist

Ansel Mapp recently completed his MM in Piano Performance as a student of Dr. Min Kwon at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He received a BA in Applied Music and Philosophy from Baylor University in 2022 and was a student of Dr. Terry Lynn Hudson.

On December 4, 2021, Ansel performed his first solo recital, featuring all Black composers with works written by Valerie Capers, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Robert Nathaniel Dett, and arr. Dr. John L. Cornelius II, Associate Professor and Collaborative Pianist at Prairie View A&M University. On May 4, 2022, Ansel organized and performed in “A Requiem to bell hooks” with advisory from Dr. Lenore Wright. This program celebrating the life and works of feminist, social critic, and author bell hooks, sharing the inequities in concert programming, and performing works by Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. Ansel Mapp was a participant in the Inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in June 2023. By doing the work to promote Black composers in spaces that lacks Black representation, he hopes to change attitudes surrounding minority composers and show that there is truly deserving and amazing music that needs to be showcased. Ansel has been teaching piano since 2017 and has experience working with students of all ages. As a teacher, Ansel is committed to a personalized approach, encouraging each student to reach their musical potential.

Richard Fried, President
Lorraine Yoch-Lear, Vice President
Heather Woll, Treasurer
Maria Gavilanes, Secretary
Steven Heckel, Member-at-Large
Joyce Richardson, Member-at-Large
Elisa Almeida, Member-at-Large