Emma Hedrick - Jazz Vocalist, Composer and Arranger  

Emma Hedrick is a 7-time DownBeat award-winning, vocalist, composer, and bandleader from Indiana. Emma received the prestigious Holland Award to attend the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where she recently graduated with Master of Music degree in Vocal Jazz Performance and distinction for original songwriting. There she studied with Anka Koziel (Voice) and Wolfert Brederode (Composition). In 2023, Emma's composition was awarded with Honorable Mention in the Jazz Education Network's Young Composer Showcase. Additionally, Emma was a DownBeat Student Music Award winner in the Graduate Vocal Jazz category. The Indianapolis native received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Jazz Performance, Magna Cum Laude, and Presser Scholar,  from the Frost School of Music, University of Miami under the tutelage of Dr. Kate Reid (Voice) and Dr. Stephen Guerra Jr. (Composition). At the University of Miami, she received four Downbeat Student Music Awards. In 2021, Emma was selected as a mentee in Jazz Composition for the Women In Jazz Organization. In 2019, Emma was a finalist in the International Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Competition where she placed 3rd. Emma had the honor of performing in the Telluride All-Stars Ensemble at the Telluride Jazz Festival in Colorado in 2018 and she was the selected vocalist for the Aspen Summer JAS Academy directed by Christian McBride in 2020. At just 24 years old, Emma has also headlined at various venues including the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival (with the Helios Jazz Orchestra), Indy Jazzfest (NextCon), and The Jazz Kitchen. She was recently a vocalist for the Jong Metropole Summer 2023 tour in the Netherlands and Germany performing at venues like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Berlin in an Orchestra conducted by Chris Walden. In high school, Emma was a YoungArts winner and a two-time winner in the DownBeat Student Music Awards. Emma aspires to take her audiences through the story of each song she sings and strives to use the voice in traditional and nontraditional ways.