Known for her beautiful tone, whimsical musicality and fine orchestral playing, Emily Hector-Hodges is in demand as an oboist and English horn soloist in professional ensembles across the United States.

As an orchestral musician, she has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, New Carolina Sinfonia, Firelands Symphony and many other ensembles. She has played under the baton of many of the world's finest conductors, including Mélisse Brunet, Robert Spano, Yoel Levi, Michelle Di Russo, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Brett Mitchell. She has spent her summers at numerous festivals and seminars, including the Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy (Oboe & English horn Fellow) and the Miami Music Festival (Wagner Institute Fellow). Emily has played in the pit orchestra for famous works such as Orfeo ed Euridice, Falstaff, Swan Lake, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Her favorite pit orchestra experience to date was playing Principal Oboe on Wagner’s epic Die Walküre at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Chamber music has been a long-term fixture in her musical career. As a member of the Triangle Youth Philharmonic Quintet, she and her colleagues sought out a partnership with the Sister Cities organization, leading them to an international tour of the USA and France. In Paris and Le Touquet, France, they performed numerous community outreach programs and gave several public performances. Emily has been coached by revered wind players such as Barrick Stees, Franklin Cohen and Elizabeth Camus.

Her passion for chamber music would later spark an interest in arranging pieces for small ensembles and duos. In October of 2019, she performed her arrangement of the second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major for solo piano, English horn and winds with renowned pianist Elizabeth DeMio. Encouraged by her supervising professor and graduate oboe colleagues, she arranged Florence Price's Violin Sonata in G minor for English horn and piano that she later premiered at her first Master of Music Degree recital. Most recently, Emily has completed a set of transcriptions of violin works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor for oboe and English horn.

An active soloist, Emily is dedicated to discovering and performing underplayed pieces of both the oboe and English horn solo and chamber repertoire. Several of her solo recital recordings can be found on YouTube as well as her website, emilyhodgesoboe.com 

Emily is a two-time graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). There, she received both her Bachelor of Music and Professional Studies diploma under the tutelage of Frank Rosenwein (Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra). She also holds a Master of Music degree with Highest Distinction from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (IU JSOM), where she was awarded the Barbara and David Jacobs Fellow Award to study with Roger Roe (English horn and Assistant Principal Oboe of the Indianapolis Symphony) on a full tuition scholarship. Prior to her collegiate studies, Emily studied with Melanie Wilsden (Principal Oboe of the North Carolina Symphony). Other influential teachers and mentors include: Jamie Roberts (Assistant Principal Oboe of the National Symphony Orchestra), Linda Strommen (Professor of Oboe at IU JSOM and Former Second Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera), Rong-Huey Liu (acclaimed Hollywood studio recording musician), Jeff Rathbun (Assistant Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra) and Erik Behr (Principal Oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic).

An East Coast native, Emily was raised in Eastchester, New York and Cary, North Carolina. While she has family in both states, she considers herself to be a North Carolinian first and foremost. She currently resides in the Raleigh-Durham area with her husband David, where she also owns and maintains a private teaching studio of hardworking and motivated students.