Dr. Emily Ondracek-Peterson is a leader in numerous fields: performance, artistic direction, arts advocacy, administration, education, career research, entrepreneurship, and academia. She holds performance degrees from The Juilliard School, a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University and an MBA in both Entrepreneurship and Strategic Leadership. As violinist, she has received acclaim from leading publications including The New York Times, been soloist with ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and recorded for leading classical record labels. In addition to her artistic acumen, Dr. Ondracek-Peterson is a transformative leader with successful leadership stints at multiple organizations, including currently serving as the first Executive Director of the Diehn School at Old Dominion University and previously as Festival Director of the Crested Butte Music Festival and founder of Noted Endeavors.
Praised by The New York Times for her “elegant solowork,” and by Strad magazine for her “dazzling passagework,” Dr. Ondracek’s multifaceted career is informed by her performances on leading stages throughout the world.
Dr. Ondracek is a native of Chicago and began playing the violin at age 4. She made her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and since has performed solo and chamber music at major international venues. In New York alone, she has performed as soloist at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic, been artist-in-residence at Bargemusic, made regular appearances at Carnegie Hall, and frequently performed at the Guggenheim, MoMA, {le} poisson rouge, the Apollo Theatre, Merkin Hall, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, Trinity Wall Street, Steinway Hall, and Symphony Space.
As first violinist and founder of the acclaimed Voxare String Quartet, Dr. Ondracek was awarded Chamber Music America’s ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and was prizewinner at multiple international competitions. With Voxare she performed over 400 concerts nationally and abroad and was the US representative for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in the UK. Voxare recordings can be found on Naxos, Albany, Bridge, and Toccata labels.
Dr. Ondracek has also performed and recorded with the Talea Ensemble; the Wordless Orchestra with Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead); Axiom; Classical Jam; and the Japanese band, Mono. Taking pride in contemporary-music advocacy, she has worked with composers both young and established, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Ned Rorem and David Del Tredici, both of whom requested recordings of their works. Dr. Ondracek’s chamber music mentors include Robert Mann, founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, and members of the Juilliard, Kronos, American, and Vermeer Quartets.
Dr. Ondracek was a transformative Festival Director of the Crested Butte Music Festival – an eight-week program that presented over 70 concerts each summer featuring acclaimed performers from around the world in symphony, operatic, chamber, jazz, electronica, dance, and film. During her tenure, she also oversaw the development of a new, state-of-the-art performance center in Crested Butte. In addition to the numerous significant world premieres and press coverage in major outlets, the Festival realized record attendance and revenue throughout her time at the helm.
Education is central to Dr. Ondracek’s commitment to the arts. Currently, Dr. Ondracek is the first Executive Director of the Diehn School of Music at Old Dominion University, also serves on faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University, and frequently lectures on career development and entrepreneurship at leading music schools such as Juilliard. Dr. Ondracek has held residencies at Dartmouth College, the University of Leeds (UK), and University of Virginia, among others. She is a two-time Morse Fellow and was a New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist, during which he introduced immersive music instructional programs to a wide range of K-12 schools in Harlem and the Bronx. She has served on the Educational Board of the Colorado Symphony and her research presented throughout the United States – including the College Music Society’s National Conference, where she delivered the keynote seminar. Her doctoral thesis, researching the career development of conservatory-trained musicians, is the seminal work in the field. Dr. Ondracek is also certified as a Suzuki instructor and teaches at Suzuki institutes and workshops throughout the country; her private students have won every major pre-college competition in Colorado and have gone on to attend leading conservatories and universities.
To help early-career musicians thrive, Dr. Ondracek founded – with famed flutist and arts advocate, Eugenia Zukerman – Noted Endeavors, a video series published in association with Musical America (the country’s leading online classical music publication) that featured interviews with successful artists and entrepreneurs.
Dr. Ondracek received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Masao Kawasaki under a Morse Scholarship. Additionally, she holds Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MBA from the University of Colorado in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Leadership.
Organizations with which Dr. Ondracek has been leader:
- Diehn School of Music at Old Dominion University (Executive Director)
- Crested Butte Music Festival (Festival / Artistic Director)
- EOP String Competition and Festival (Founder and Executive Director)
- Voxare String Quartet (1st violinist)
- Noted Endeavors (Co-Founder with Eugenia Zukerman)