Emily Sheppard is a composer, performer and scientist based in Tasmania. She dwells in the uncharted territory between realms often considered opposites: classical and folk, improvisation and notation, art and science. Greatly inspired by the enduring mysteries of nature, she aims to bring a little more wonder to the world.

Emily was awarded a Tasmanian residency grant in 2017, spending four weeks in caves composing music. This resulted in an album of original music released in 2020, titled MoonMilk. She was a composer and performer at Big hART’s event Kelp Pollen Rain (2020), for which she developed a kelp amplifier. Creating a resonating chamber out of a dried bull kelp, she paired this with the Tonewood amplifier to ‘play’ the kelp from her violin. Tasmania’s science/arts festival, Beaker Street, commissioned her to compose music inspired by the walk into South Cape Bay Walk as part of their 2020 Sci Art Walks podcast. Her composition ‘Aftermath’for singing violist in scordatura has been championed by Katie Yap, who won the prestigious Freedman Fellowship performing it. In 2021, she received an ABC Classic Commission, composing and recording a cross-genre suite of music in collaboration with Claire Anne Taylor. The resulting album is set for release in early 2023.

Emily is a member of Van Diemen's Fiddles, a trio of femme fiddlers combining baroque, klezmer and folk styles. The Van Diemen’s Fiddles has commissioned Emily to write several compositions and arrangements for their performances as part of Ten Days on the Island (2021), MONA FOMA (2021) and the Wooden Boat Festival (2022). Emily’s music has also been performed by Michael Kieran Harvey, Anne Norman, Quin Thomson, and the Tasmanian Conservatorium Choir.

Emily is a core member and composer for Where Water Meets (alongside Yyan Ng), a chamber-folk ensemble that has played at every major festival in Tasmania, at the National Folk Festival, and are touring New Zealand in 2023. The composing duo won the Folk Federation of Tasmania Tune Writing Award in 2019 for their composition, Brown Mountain. They have been commissioned by Hadley’s Art Hotel to compose the soundscape for the Trail of Terrific Tales (2022), and they wrote music for Jacob Colling’s short film, We Belong to the Land (2021).

Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and an honours degree in marine science, specialising in seaweed. Over the past decade, she has communicated science through music, creating shows about CRISPR gene engineering, endangered kelp forests, the geological deep time history of Tasmania, and most recently the incredible migration story of freshwater eels.

"Another delight was the obvious joy of the music-making on stage. Nowhere was this more apparent than a highlight of the program, Sheppard and Yap’s Gula Melaka for two violas. The duo beamed delight and roguish charm, almost egging each other on in a folk viola duel, sharing a toe-tapping tune about a dessert experience in Darwin."

Limelight Review

"Sheppard attends to the detail of sound, every sound, and exploits her most capable skills in ensuring the harmonies and textures she seeks depict the immenseness of the scene she is witnessing. Her playing is quite stunning. There are places one visits, places that are so awesome, so vast, that one understands the miniscule nature of an individual existence, but, at the same time, one’s place, one’s importance, however ephemeral, in the scheme of it all. This then, is what is expressed in this gorgeous piece of music, and as such, connects it perfectly to the intent of the entire project. That it is improvised is so fitting. As the natural surrounds she engages with, the ecosystem alters from one minute to the next, so her response will never be the same."

Music Trust Review

"It was a testament to Sheppard’s understanding of the possibilities and constraints of working with the solo viola, as well as the composer’s ability to create something innately emotional without ever giving in to the overly sentimental."

Steller Creative Review

"Aftermath suggests loss and grief, and with a strangely Celtic tinge."

Move Records Review

"The reception that greeted Emily Sheppard at the end of her fiendishly difficult and wonderfully accomplished performance was tremendous."

Artshub Review

"Music and science meet in the life of Emily Sheppard, a classical musician and environmental scientist who composes music about nature and plays in caves, fields and forests. Emily, Kate and Niamh talk about the nexus of science and art and how emotion can be used for powerful communication."

That's What I call Science Interview

"We chat to Emily about disappearing kelp forests, environmental activism, and composing in caves; all the while wondering how she has the time."

CutCommon Interview

"Exploring the last stop on earth. Talk by First Dog on the Moon with music by Emily Sheppard."

Sci Art Walks