Emilie Catlett

Em’s musical pathway began as a contest fiddler under the guidance of Dale Morris Sr. She earned a Bachelor of Music in viola performance from the University of Houston and a Master of Music from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She returned to Texas in 2021 to refocus on her first love—Texas-style fiddling—through the lens of ethnomusicology. She graduated with a Master of Music in Musicology from Southern Methodist University in 2023. Her master's thesis, “Texas Exceptionalism and Texas Style Fiddling,” earned the Roy and Sue Johnson Thesis Award.

Em’s performing and teaching career reflects her commitment to honoring both her fiddling roots and her classical education. She has led clinics on viola-fiddling for Mark O’Connor’s Violin Method Camps in Charleston, Boston, and Baltimore, and has appeared as a guest artist at the Garth Newell Allegheny Mountain Strings program (Warm Springs, VA). She presently maintains a small private fiddle studio through the Shedd Institute in Eugene. Em’s recent performance history includes collaborations with the University of Oregon American Roots Ensemble, playing second violin for the Shedd Institute’s production of Lerner and Lowe’s Paint Your Wagon, and playing vielle and viola in the University of Oregon’s production of Hildegard Von Bingem’s Ordo Virtutum. As part of her research, Em competes in fiddle contests, a pastime she has enjoyed since she was 9. She placed 5th in the Northwest Regional Fiddle Contest’s Young Adult Division in Spokane, WA in April 2026.

In addition to “fiddlehead,” Em identifies as a “born-again Swiftie.” Her paper “Taylor Swift: Prosumer Economics and Fandom” examines the cultural impact of the 2017 album Reputation and will appear in the edited volume Taylor Swift and Fandom: Aesthetics, Addiction, and Community at the end of 2026.

When not fiddling, Em enjoys cross stitch, vampire/werewolf politics, and Star Trek.