Born in Surprise, Arizona, to a musical family, Emma Potter began playing violin in the third grade and French Horn in the fourth grade. Emma is now enjoying a vibrant music career performing with a wide range of ensembles.

Principal Horn of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Emma has performed in a variety of musical settings from church ensembles to weddings, chamber orchestras, musical theater pits, jazz bands, brass and woodwind quintets. In 2019, Emma was appointed principal horn of the New York Youth Symphony, a position she held until she completed her music studies in New York. She took part in a Grammy winning album produced in 2020 featuring world premieres and works from under-represented composers such as Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery.

In 2022 Emma made her solo debut with the Northern Neck Orchestra under the direction of Michael Repper performing Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 and was a finalist in the Rice University Shepherd School of Music Concerto competition. She then went on to solo with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in December of 2025, with the third movement from Mozart’s 4th Horn Concerto. She has played with the Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the New York Chamber Music Society to name a few. In 2024 Emma toured with the Seraph Brass Quintet, featuring performances in Philadelphia and New York.

Emma has had the opportunity to collaborate with amazing musicians all over the world, including Michelle Baker, John DeMain, Andrew Bain, and Steven Moechel. In addition, she has performed in top performance venues such as Carnegie hall, Jones Hall, and the Ozawa Concert Hall. Memorable performances include Sibelius 2, Scheherazade, Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony, and Alpine Symphony.

Emma’s outreach activities have included individual educational performances in coffee shops, house concerts, retirement centers and school visits. These solo performances have featured Elizabeth Raum’s Concerto for Horn, Catherine Lakuthia’s I Threw a Shoe at a Cat, and excerpts from Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4. Collaborative outreach performances have included Eric Ewazen’s Pastorale, James Naigus’s Spectra, as well as various duets for mezzo soprano and horn, horn and harp, and small popular holiday medleys.

Coming from a musical family, Emma enjoys performing alongside her siblings’, her sister who plays trombone, brother who is a pianist, and younger sister who is a dancer/pianist.

Emma received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and her Masters of Music in Horn Performance from the Shepherd School ofMusic at Rice University.