Violinist Emily Nash, graduated with her MM in violin performance while studying with Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University, graduating early and with high honors. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while studying with Simin Ganatra.  Nash has participated in master classes with the Silk Road Ensemble, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Wendy Sharp, Roland and Almita Vamos, John McGrosso, Kurt Baldwin, Rebecca Henry, and the Parker Quartet.
Growing up, Emily spent her summers attending Interlochen Arts Camp, California Summer Music, and Madeline Island. During high school she was a solo competition winner of the New Haven Youth Symphony Orchestra, first prize winner of the Greenwich Center for Chamber Music Competition, a guest soloist with the Choate rosemary Hall’s tour to Italy, and a finalist in the Greater Bridgeport Solo Competition.
She was awarded the Farwell Award from the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition in 2011. Emily was the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s Concertmaster from 2012-2013.  Yo-Yo Ma asked her to come back in 2014 to be a mentor for the Artistic Challenge Project. Emily has given solo recitals for the Orvieto Camber Music Concert Series, the Musician Club of Women, the Fourth Presbyterian Church, and the Fran Randall Memorial Recital Series.  This will be Nash’s sixth season in both the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra where she is Associate Concertmaster and Assistant Principal Second respectively. Emily also subs with the Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival.  Along with performing, Emily maintains a private violin studio of about twenty students.  Emily resides in a Chicago suburb with her two-year-old daughter Natalie and husband and violist, Bruno Vaz da Silva.