EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks is a doctoral candidate at SUNY Stony Brook, studying violin with Phil Setzer, Soovin Kim and Philippe Graffin. She completed her undergraduate work with honors at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Stephen Rose and Annie Fullard. As a chamber player, she has enjoyed the fine coaching of both the Emerson and Cavani String Quartets, and she has served as quartet coach at such summer music festivals as Birch Creek and the Allegheny Music Festival. Her summer experiences include a full scholarship at the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles and a five-week European tour with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas.

At Stony Brook EmmaLee is a member of the Baroque Ensemble and the Contemporary Chamber Players. She has performed a wide spectrum of chamber music, including the premier of many contemporary compositions. In high school she founded the Four Seasons String Quartet that performed throughout Central Illinois until the group disbanded during college years.
A winner of concerto competitions, EmmaLee was featured soloist with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra as winner of the orchestra’s Young Artists Competition. These days, in addition to the regular solo, duet and quartet gigs she plays in Illinois and in the New York City metropolitan area, she is called upon for concert work with the Kanye West tour.

Although her violin is a classical instrument at Stony Brook, in EmmaLee’s hands the instrument makes a resounding statement in old-time fiddle music. She has played lead fiddle with the Rusty Pickup String Band since she was 10 years old, and she won the Illinois State Fair fiddle championship as a teenager.