Having performed with renowned ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, violinist Emily Daggett Smith is an active soloist, chamber musician, and educator, dedicated to furthering the profound connective power of classical music in the 21st century.
B i o g r a p h y
Praised as playing “gorgeously” and with “gracefulness and easy rapport” (The Boston Globe), violinist Emily Daggett Smith performs regularly as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Her performances have taken her across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, and she has been described as playing with a “very beautiful tone” (The Gathering Note) and “irrepressible élan” (The Seattle Times).
In 2022, Dr. Smith was named first violinist of the award-winning Vega String Quartet. The quartet’s recent highlights include performances at the National Gallery in D.C., Kneisel Hall in Maine, and a tour of their unique program “Beethoven and Bluegrass” with Mark and Maggie O’Connor across the East Coast, which finished with a critically-acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in the spring of 2025. In celebration of the quartet’s 20th anniversary as quartet-in-residence at Emory University in the 2025-26 season, they will be presenting a series of commissions, special projects and concert appearances throughout the Emory University community. In addition to serving as private instrumental professors, the quartet presents a series of interdisciplinary lecture-performances across the Emory campus every year on a range of subjects in departments including Medicine, Environmental Science, Literature, Biochemistry, Philosophy, Law, Neurobiology, and Anthropology, among many others. (vegaquartet.com)
As a soloist, Dr. Smith made her New York concerto debut at the age of 21 in Alice Tully Hall, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra and conductor Emmanuel Villaume. Since then she has performed concerti with many orchestras including Iris Orchestra, Festival Mozaic Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, the National Music Festival Orchestra and the New York Classical Players. She has performed solo recitals across the country at venues including the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Music in the Loft in Chicago, and Washington Performing Arts’ “Music in the Country”. As a concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra she worked with renowned conductors including Michael Tilson-Thomas and Leonard Slatkin, and has appeared as guest concertmaster of orchestras including Iris Orchestra, The Orlando Philharmonic, and The Knights.
