Originally from Stockholm, Sweden, composer Emil Ernström grew up in Sweden, Hungary, and the United States and his work draws from a variety of influences. Traversing electronic music, sampled sounds, and traditional instruments, Emil’s music frequently explores the contrast between immersive textures and rhythmic structures through minimalist procedures and unconventional sound worlds. His music has been performed by Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Mare Balticum, Musica Vitae, Sō Percussion, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Icarus Duo, among other ensembles. Awards include a scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (KMA), SWEA San Francisco Scholarship, Yawkey Community Service Fellowship and an Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

Besides concert music, Emil’s music often interacts with theater, dance, installation and film and his work has been heard at Inter Arts Center, the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, and the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. In 2019 his music theater piece Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights was performed at Yale University, based on a text by Gertrude Stein and in collaboration with director Jack McAuliffe and production/lighting designer Ryan Seffinger. He has also worked with the LA-based Echo Park Film Center on Artspace’s Summer Apprenticeship Program, leading New Haven students through the process of scoring and improvising music for their film exhibition, The Sounds We See: A New Haven City Symphony.

Emil earned a Masters in Music Composition from the Malmö Academy of Music at Lund University, where he studied with Bent Sørensen and Alessandro Perini. He graduated from Yale College with a BA in music, studying composition with Kathryn Alexander and Konrad Kaczmarek.

contact: ernstrom.emil [at] gmail.com