Emma Tranum
Bio
Originally from Olympia, WA, Emma Tranum is a horn player and teacher, currently based in Vancouver, WA. Here, she teaches private horn lessons, is a freelance performer, and substitute teaches. Emma recently finished her master’s degree in horn performance at the University of Arizona under Professor Johanna Lundy, where she held an assistantship with the Horn Studio and the General Music Education department. As a part of this assistantship, she had the opportunity to teach private lessons to the entire undergraduate horn studio during the regular professor’s leave of absence and assisted other professors with grading.
During her degree, Emma was a member of the Graduate Brass Quintet, and served as principal of both the Arizona Symphony Orchestra and the University of Arizona Wind Ensemble. Emma also had success professionally, having frequently performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and other groups in the area including Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Arizona Opera, and Christian Youth Theater. Additionally, she spent a year working at the Music and Dance Academy in Tucson, where she taught music to kids ranging from 18 months to 7 years old in a class called Music FunTime. In the summer of 2025, she was invited to the Ozark Music Festival, where she spent two weeks performing with other young musicians in an intensive learning environment.
Emma received her Bachelor of Music degrees in horn performance and music education from Central Washington University, where she studied under Dr. Jeff Snedeker. During her time here, she had many notable accomplishments. Some of those include winning second prize in the university’s concerto competition with Francine Aubin’s Concerto for Horn, playing in the esteemed Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, being the student coordinator for the Northwest Horn Symposium held at the university in 2023, and performing a senior recital of challenging works for horn, all by female composers.
During her degree, Emma also regularly performed with local groups in the Central Washington area, including the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra as a sub for many concerts, the Valley Theater Company, and the Ellensburg Dance Ensemble. She also frequently worked at summer camps and worked with high schools as a horn/mellophone coach. Additionally, she had great success in her student teaching at a K-12 school in Thorp, Washington in 2024, where she taught band, choir, and general music. Now teaching private lessons, she uses this variety of experience to provide excellent horn education to her students.
