Emily Pfeifer is a native of Rochester, Minnesota.   She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude.  She then went on to receive a Masters degree in Viola Performance with an emphasis in string pedagogy from the University of Oregon.  While at the U of O, Emily was the Graduate Teaching Fellow for the School of Music’s Community Music Institute for the two years that she was working towards her degree.  While serving as a GTF, she maintained a studio of violinists and violists, and also taught weekly Suzuki group classes at the university.  She currently teaches violin and viola in Eugene, Oregon to a studio of young students, ranging in age from 3-18 years old, and teaches strings through the Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestras String Academy program.

Ms. Pfeifer started studying piano at age three, and viola at the age of seven.  Emily’s viola teachers have included Carolyn McCall, Charles Gray, Robert Baldwin, and Leslie Straka.  She has received Suzuki training from Karin Hallberg, Louise Scott, Shelley Rich, and Judy Bossuat.  She has had the opportunity to play in the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra and the Eugene Ballet Orchestra.  In addition, Emily served as director of the Northwest Suzuki Institute from 2002-2008, and also serves as a faculty member at NSI.  She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the Eugene Suzuki Strings Association.  Besides musical activities, Emily and her husband are avid mountain-bike riders and love hiking and backpacking with their two dogs.