Emma Gierszal
Assistant Professor: Percussion
Emma Gierszal (she/her) is the Assistant Professor of Percussion at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. She has earned her DMA and MM in Percussion Performance and Literature and an Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Her BM degree in Music Education is from Furman University.
Emma is a versatile musician dedicated to sharing new musical experiences with others. As a co-founding musician of the trio 3D Percussion, she leads ambitious commissioning projects, curates creative concerts, and records new repertoire for percussion. 3D Percussion has toured several universities and innovative venues with the music and light show REFRACT, and is currently presenting a full program of six newly commissioned works titled IMPRINTS. Emma is also a member of the John Psathas Percussion Project, which began with recording Dr. Omar Carmenates' arrangements of Psathas' chamber works and has evolved into an ongoing collaboration with soloist Fabian Ziegler after performing for PASIC 2024. Emma also performs as co-principal percussionist of the Orchestra of Northern New York and the Northern Symphonic Winds and as an extra percussionist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Some of her notable performances include playing with the 2025 International Pride Orchestra in Washington DC, performing Viet Cuong's quartet concerto "Re(new)al" with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and premiering Austin Keck's "Evanescence" with the Eastman Percussion Ensemble at the IPEA International Percussion Competition in Shanghai.
As an educator, she has presented at conferences including the New York State Music Educators Association, the New York State Band Directors Association, and the American Musicological Society. She has also served as faculty for the Chautauqua Summer Music Festival, the Arts Engaging Life Percussion Residency, and the Crane Youth Music Camp. Before her position at Crane, where she instructs a studio of 25 and directs the percussion ensemble, she lectured at Furman University in spring 2024. While in Rochester, NY, she taught percussion at the Hochstein School of Music and served as an adjunct percussion lecturer at Nazareth University. Taking an interest in Rochester's local music scene, she served as President of the Board for the chamber ensemble fivebyfive and published an Eastman Case Study about the ROCmusic Collaborative.
Emma has participated in competitive orchestral and contemporary music festivals, including the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2023, Grafenegg Academy in 2021 and 2022, the National Repertory Orchestra in 2021 (where she had the privilege of performing in front of the orchestra), and the Chautauqua Summer Music Festival in 2019. In 2018, she received the Mary Ann Starring Memorial Award and performed at Sigma Alpha Iota's national convention.
Emma is a proud Malletech Artist.