Emily Shaw is a classical guitarist, teacher, and luthier currently living in Ottawa, Ontario. She studied guitar with her father, Mike Shaw until university, at which point she moved to London, Ontario to study with Wilma van Berkel at the University of Western Ontario. Emily completed a master’s degree (MMus) in guitar performance in 2016 under the tutelage of Patrick Roux at the University of Ottawa. As a full-time musician, Emily now spends a good deal of her time working with students in her home studio where she teaches classical and acoustic guitar and piano.
As a luthier, Emily builds guitars by commission and has supplied instruments to guitarists around the world. She is particularly interested in building unique instruments that cater to the aesthetic and physical needs of individual players as well as in building historically inspired guitars after builders such as Stradivarius, Torres, Fleta, Bouchet, and Simplicio. Emily writes a blog about her adventures in guitar building that can be viewed on her websites emilyshawguitar.ca and guitarsbyemily.wordpress.com.
In performance, Emily strives to engage her audience with expressive interpretations of music from across the centuries. She has a weakness for emotionally charged, lush harmonies, amusing character pieces, and new works for the classical guitar. Emily released her debut CD, Vespers in 2019, featuring a variety of evening music from across the centuries. Her second album, In The Night, was released in October 2021 and showcased music by Amy Brandon, Anya Gowan, Elissar Hanna, Christina Volpini, Clara Schumann, Gena Branscombe, and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
When not practising, teaching, or building guitars, Emily enjoys hiking, cooking, making things and gardening.
Classical Guitar No. 017 Classical Guitar No. 021 Classical Guitar No. 012 Visser-Shaw Guitar Duo Nova Scotia, 2017
Nova Scotia 2015 Baroque Guitar No. 004 Concert Venue 2015 Rehearsal in Truro, NS