Emily Ondracek-Peterson
Dr. Emily Ondracek-Peterson is a leader in numerous fields: performance, artistic direction, arts advocacy, administration, education, career research, entrepreneurship, and academia.
Praised by The New York Times for her “elegant solowork,” and by Strad magazine for her “dazzling passagework,” Dr. Ondracek is a rising star of violin performance.Dr. Ondracek is a native of Chicago and began playing the violin at the age of 4. When sixteen she gave her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concertos. Dr. Ondracek has performed solo and chamber music performances at all of the major venues in New York City including as soloist at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Guggenheim, MoMA, {le} poisson rouge, the Apollo Theatre, and many more. Currently, she is Co-Artistic Director of the Crested Butte Music Festival, a summer-long festival presenting the world’s best opera, symphony, chamber music, bluegrass, rock, electronica, and more. Dr. Ondracek has recorded for Naxos, Albany, and Toccata labels.
As first violinist of the acclaimed Voxare String Quartet, Dr. Ondracek has been awarded Chamber Music America’s ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. With Voxare she tours nationally and abroad. Taking pride in contemporary-music advocacy, she has worked with composers both young and established, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Ned Rorem and David Del Tredici, both of which has requested recordings of their works. Dr. Ondracek has studied chamber music with Robert Mann, founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, and members of the Juilliard, Kronos, American, and Vermeer Quartets.
Currently, Dr. Ondracek is the director of string studies and chamber music and full-time professor of violin at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Dr. Ondracek received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and her doctorate in Music and Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.