About Emily Thompson

Emily J. Thompson is a professional violinist and teacher with a Master of Music degree in Early Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Bowling Green State University. She has a private violin studio in Fort Wayne, IN, and performs with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Marion Philharmonic. Her ensemble Evermore Strings provides live classical strings music for weddings and events throughout northeast Indiana.

Emily studied violin pedagogy with Mimi Zweig at the Indiana University String Academy, where she taught as an assistant in the IU String Academy. She is a registered teacher with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and received her Suzuki training from Christie Felsing, Doris Preucil and Edward Kreitman. She has taught violin in the Indianapolis Suzuki Academy, Oak Farm Montessori School, Avilla, IN, and the Indiana Wesleyan Suzuki Violin Program in Marion, IN.  She has also taught as adjunct professor of violin, chamber music, fine arts, and string techniques at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN. She has taught in her home studio for almost 20 years. 

Emily is a professional orchestral, chamber, and solo violinist. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 performing with IWU music faculty in the group Soprani Compagni, and has performed numerous faculty recitals at Indiana Wesleyan University. She has played in professional orchestras throughout the region, including the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Marion Philharmonic, Muncie Symphony, Mansfield, Adrian, Terre Haute, Lima, and Owensboro Symphonies.

As a baroque violinist, she performs with the Bach Collegium Fort Wayne and is a founding member of the Fort Wayne Baroque Soloists. She has also collaborated with period groups Eleganza Baroque, New Comma Baroque, and La Réunion Musicale. She is a member of the Redeemer Consort, a mixed ensemble specializing in sacred Lutheran music of the 16th through 18th centuries, and also performs in a chamber orchestra at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Fort Wayne.

Emily Thompson graduated from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with a Master’s degree in Early Music (baroque violin) and violin pedagogy. Emily studied in the Early Music Institute under Stanley Ritchie, performing major baroque and classical repertoire in the IU Baroque Orchestra. Emily also performed and toured with the Pro Arte Singers, and in the Classical period orchestra of the Bloomington Early Music Festival. 

Emily completed her Bachelor of Music in violin performance at Bowling Green State University, where she studied violin with Vasile Beluska and Penny Thompson Kruse. She participated in international summer festivals, including ARIA International Music Academy, and Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and played masterclasses for Janet Sung and Midori. 

Emily Thompson was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved to Hicksville, Ohio, where she grew up in a musical family. Emily started piano at age three, and violin at eleven. Most of her eight siblings are also professional musicians and teachers, and her father, Michael Coplin, is an expert piano technician and owner of Coplin Piano Service, serving clients across NW Ohio and NE Indiana.