Hello and Welcome!

Emily Montoya Barnes is a chamber musician, harp teacher, arts advocate and orchestral musician. She has been a featured soloist with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Panamá), The Nevada Chamber Orchestra, and Junges Sinfonieorchester (Germany). She has also toured the United States and Germany as part of a flute and harp duo.

​

Emily enjoys working with all different mediums of art and has collaborated with dancers and visual artists to bring music to a new audience. With funding from state and national grants, Emily has worked closely with composers to commission and premier a number of pieces that feature the unique nature of the harp. Most recently she collaborated with American composer Maxwell LaFontant to commission a double-concerto for Harp and Trumpet, which she premiered in 2017 with trumpet player Kevin Tague, and again in 2019 when the piece was re-written for Symphonic Winds.

​

Emily has held the position of principal harpist with the Nevada Chamber Orchestra, the Henderson Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, and the Las Cruses Symphony. She received her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance from Manhattan School of Music, and her Master of Music in Harp Performance from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Emily can often be found hiking and climbing in the nearby mountains with her intrepid husband and daughter.