Émilie Girard-Charest is a cellist, composer and improviser.

She has numerous recordings to her credit, including Émilie préfère le chant (2016, Ambiances Magnétiques), Race with time (duo with Mart Soo, 2016, Improtest Records), Avec (2016, Kohlenstoff Records), Musica in camera (Quatuor d’occasion, 2014, &records) and Bruit court-circuit (Ensemble SuperMusique, 2012, Ambiances Magnétiques).

Émilie has taken part in festivals in Canada, the United States (Avant-Music Festival), Belgium (Ars Musica), Austria (Klangspuren Schwaz and Impuls), Germany (Darmstadt Ferienkurse for Neue Musik and Donaueschingen Musiktage), Chili (Encuentro Internacional de Compositores), Argentina (Sonido Presente), Estonia (Autumn Festival), Finland (MuTe Fest), Spain (Mixtur) as well as Macedonia (Journées de la Musique Macédonienne). She has also given concerts in France, Russia and Uruguay.

Emilie regularly collaborates with theater, dance and performance productions. Her stage appearances include, notably, performances in Couloir et Chambres by Philippe Minyana and La fête à Jean by Pierre-Luc Lasalle (théâtre l’Instant, Director : André-Marie Coudou), ADN by Dennis Kelly (Director: Sylvain Bélanger), The Sticks (Andrew Tay) as well as Le frottement du monde (Sarah Bronsard).

Émilie is a graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in cello (under Denis Brott) and in composition (under Michel Gonneville). She also holds a Master CoPeCo (Contemporary Performance and Composition) degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and is currently pursuing studies under the direction of Philippe Hurel and Laurent Pottier at Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon, where she began doctoral studies in September 2016 on the development of an ergonomic notation of microtonality for the cello.

She was the recipient of the Career Development Award from the Fondation du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in 2014 and in 2015, she was awarded the Prix d’Europe de Composition Fernand-Lindsay.