Emily Howe, Ph.D.

Emily Howe, Ph.D. – Guest Director, Spring 2026

Emily Howe, Ph.D. is a conductor, ethnomusicologist, and educator whose passion for community-building through music has taken her into concert halls, schools, prisons, and places of worship throughout Boston and around the world.

Currently Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music at Curry College in Milton, MA, Emily leads the choral program and teaches courses in Musicology and Ethnomusicology; she also serves as a Conductor with the award-winning Boston Children’s Chorus, where since 2009 she has led choirs in high-profile performances around the world and developed music curricula fostering social inquiry with singers aged 7-18. Deeply committed to performing works of living composers and taken from living traditions, Emily has performed works from choral, orchestral, operatic, pop, hip-hop, folk, and world music repertories during engagements with Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Boston Opera Collaborative, Opera Hub, Boston Public Schools, Secondary School of Fine Arts (Cambodia), and Manado State University Singers (Indonesia), among others. In recent seasons, Emily has served as the guest conductor for festival choruses including Kansas All-State Elementary Choir, Massachusetts Senior High Central District Chorus, and Massachusetts Junior District SATB Chorus.

Emily has authored publications, given presentations, curated exhibitions, and taught university courses on topics related to music education, choral music, and world music cultures, and she continues to explore issues related to global repertoires, performance, and identity in her scholarly and creative practice. Emily holds an undergraduate degree in Music and English from Davidson College and a master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Boston University, where she also earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology.