Emmett Edwards is a multifaceted guitarist and composer with extensive experience performing a wide range of musical styles on both nylon and steel string guitars. 

In 2024, he had the opportunity to concertize and adjudicate guitar competitions with fellow members of the YSM Guitar Studio in both Thailand and Vietnam.  He has performed as a member of the US Guitar Orchestra at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in 2019 and Merkin Hall in 2022. In addition to these selected performances, he also toured with the group across Spain and France. 

Emmett was commissioned to compose and perform the steel string acoustic guitar title piece for the 2023 documentary, Heirloom: Guitar.  Emmett was a finalist in the 2020 Wilson Center Fingerstyle Guitar Competition. He has worked alongside composer, Martin Bresnick, and pianist, Lisa Moore, at the 2024 and 2025 Norfolk New Music Workshops to premier newly commissioned chamber works for ensembles including electric and classical guitar. As part of Guilford College’s Bryan Series, he performed at Greensboro’s Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts as a member of a Jazz Quartet opening for Author, Anne Lamott. He also performed at a Bryan Series reception hosted at the Tanger Center for Actress and Author, Rita Moreno.

Emmett holds a Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and João Luiz.  He is in the process of recording a debut EP with his NYC based band, DOGBOY.  Outside of music, Emmett is an avid hiker and is both an Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow.  He is also passionate about martial arts and holds a second degree black belt in Taekwondo.

Emmett began composing Kilimanjaro in the Fall of 2022 and was initially developed as an electric guitar piece in a progressive metal style.  In the Summer of 2023, Emmett climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his father, during which he composed large sections of the piece on a travel guitar.  The first movement, Dormant, captures the spirituality of the mountain as a sacred and ancient landscape, shaped by powerful eruptions long passed.  Active, depicts a fiery display of Mount Kilimanjaro at the height of its volcanic past.  Emmett premiered Kilimanjaro at the 2024 Saigon International Guitar Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.