Emma is an Associate Conductor at the Young People’s Chorus of New York City as well as the Director of YPC National, developing programs for music teachers and singers nationwide that reimagine the possibilities of choral music education. Emma has prepared and directed choirs for recordings and performances at venues ranging from Lincoln Center to the United Nations to National Sawdust, as well as numerous acclaimed productions, including, most recently, Dead Man Walking (Metropolitan Opera, 2023), El Niño (Metropolitan Opera, 2024) and the Marriage of Figaro (Little Island, 2024). Through her role as Director of YPC National, Emma coordinates exchanges and dialogue between YPC choristers and choirs from across the world, and produces the annual YPC National Summer Intensive, connecting music teachers and singers from across the country through a week of joyful, innovative, and inspiring interdisciplinary programming.

An accomplished violinist, vocalist, and performer, Emma is just as at home onstage as she is producing and preparing offstage. She has performed as a violin soloist in venues including Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Prudential Center, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, and the Irish Repertory Theater. She sings in choirs throughout New York City, and performed as a Soprano soloist for the American Ballet Theater’s production of “The Dream.” As an actor, Emma has appeared in productions and readings at Ars Nova, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the Irish Repertory Theater. She frequently writes and collaborates with her sister Katie Hathaway, with whom she proudly co-stars in the band, Hathaways. 

Emma has worked as a guest clinician at the elementary, middle, high school and collegiate levels, in addition to serving as a mentor to teachers at all stages of their careers through YPC’s Conducting Fellowship and the YPC National Conductor Studio. This Fall, she will serve as Lecturer in Music Direction and Conducting at Princeton University, teaching THR: 451: Rehearsal and Performance. 

Emma holds a BA in Music with a Certificate in Education Studies from Yale University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where she was President and Student Conductor of the Yale Glee Club and studied conducting with Jeffrey Douma and violin with Kyung Yu. She holds a Masters in Music Education from the University of Hartford’s The Hartt School, with Kodály and Fame certification.

She lives in Brooklyn with her extraordinary baby girl, husband Solon Snider Sway, and their sweet puppy, Pippin.