Teaching
is intimately woven into my compositional practice. One cannot exist without the other: I cannot compose without teaching, and I cannot teach without composing.
- Emily Koh
Teaching Philosophy
I believe that a creative person must be curious, observant, and brave. My teaching focuses on exploration, experimentation, and research. As a teacher, I encourage my students to engage deeply with their interests, whether musical or non-musical in nature; in addition to developing critical observation, analytical and questioning skills. These practices are important as I guide them through the process of developing a sincere and personal artistic voice.
I believe that a well-rounded and holistic musical education is crucial for the 21st-century musician. As such, I integrate entrepreneurship, cognitive study, social and historical knowledge, and community building into the study and practice of composition.
University of Georgia
I am very fortunate to hold a full-time, tenured, composition professorship at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, GA (about 70 miles east of Atlanta!) UGA is a public land and sea grant institution, and the the flagship higher education institution in the state of Georgia.
The Hugh Hodgson School of Music offers bachelors (BM), masters (MM) and doctoral (DMA) degrees in Music Composition. Almost 40 student and faculty composers at UGA form a vibrant creative community housed at the Roger and Phyllis Dancz Center for New Music, home of the Music Composition area. The Dancz Center features a modular black box multimedia theater (with theatrical lighting, flexible audience seating, a 16.4 EAW spatial audio system for flexible surround formats and 3D audio) and three electronic music studios.
ICIT & Festivals
I teach at the International Composition Institute of Thailand (ICIT) every December in Bangkok, Thailand, and have been on the composition faculty since the academy's inception in 2020. ICIT takes place at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) in the heart of Bangkok's city center, and is an intensive and unique experience for young composers around the world to work with Tacet(i) Ensemble under the guidance of professional composers.
In Summer 2026, I will be a Guest Composer at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. I have also taught at the Alba Music Festival (Alba, Italy), the Etchings Festival (Northampton, MA), the Asia-Pacific Saxophone Academy (Bangkok, Thailand), and the UNHEARD Mentorship Program (Singapore).
Residencies, Clinics, Masterclasses etc.
I have been a guest composer at numerous universities and high schools across the country where I have taught lessons and given masterclasses in composition and double bass, presented to composition/electroacoustic music/theory (and once, even a food science!) classes, given pre-concert talks, performed with ensembles (as a bassist), coached large and chamber ensembles etc.
Partial list of universities/institutions where I have been a guest:
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
University of North Carolina School for the Arts (UNCSA), Winston Salem, NC
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Stetson University, DeLand, FL
Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL
National University of Singapore Singapore
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
Raffles Institution, Singapore
Temasek Junior College, Singapore
Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM), Bangkok, Thailand
