Email emily.sterk@otago.ac.nz
Emily joined the School of Performing Arts as a clarinet tutor in 2004 and she recently began tutoring the Introduction to Music theory paper, MUSI 191. She holds a BMus(hons) from the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University and an MMus from Griffith University, both in clarinet performance, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching from The Dunedin College of Education.
As a performer, Emily has been a clarinet player in the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra for over 20 years. She has also played various wind instruments in the ‘pit band’ for many musicals, operas, and ballets, and spent a number of years in the RNZAF band. She enjoys playing in chamber music concerts and currently plays the clarinet and saxophone in Skin and Bone, a 5-piece swing band, and The Klezmer Sisters.
With a passion for community music groups, Emily is the founder and musical director of the Blueskin Bay Orchestra, a community ensemble she established to give amateur musicians an inclusive and supportive environment to create music together. She is also the woodwind tutor for the Dunedin Youth Orchestra and recently joined the musical directors’ team, conducting her first concert with the orchestra in 2025. Additionally, Emily was a woodwind tutor at the Spring Chamber Music Weekend for a number of years and will be returning to the Waitaki Summer School as a tutor this summer.