Emma Roijackers

Emma is a violinist, teacher, founder of the HearAndNow Foundation, and Artistic Director of the HearAndNow Chamber Music Festival.
Her musical career includes solo performances, international chamber music festivals, and leadership roles in various orchestras and ensembles. By founding HearAndNow, she created a new chamber music festival in Amsterdam where she makes her love for contemporary and adventurous music accessible to a diverse and wide audience.

Emma has been awarded several prizes. At the 2022 Oskar Back Competition, she won second prize, the audience prize, and the prize for the best performance of a modern work. She won first prize at the “Luigi Zanuccoli” International Competition in Italy, third prize at the Emmanuel Durlet International Competition in Belgium, the ‘Laberté Hoedemaker’ Prize in 2013, and received several awards at the Princess Christina Competition. Emma was nominated for the Grachtenfestival Prize in 2023. In 2024, Emma and Florian Verweij were invited by the AVROTROS VIRTUOOS program to record her debut CD featuring works by Grief, Prokofiev, Wantenaar, and Szymanowski.

In 2022, Emma performed as a soloist in Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Residentie Orkest at Tivoli Vredenburg. In 2025, she made her debut with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw. Emma has also performed as a soloist with the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra, the Soundwave Collective, the Bushey Symphony Orchestra, and the Jersey Symphony Orchestra, among others, in concerts featuring works by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Vivaldi, Hartmann, and Prokofiev.

Emma began her violin lessons with Evert Sillem and later studied in the Young Talents program at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Prof. Lex Korff de Gidts. She continued her studies with Prof. Ilya Grubert at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and graduated with the highest possible grade, a “10.” Emma received full funding from Dutch foundations to continue her studies with Lukas Hagen, where she completed her postgraduate diploma in 2020.
Further inspiration comes from lessons and master classes given by renowned violinists and musicians such as Leonidas Kavakos, Jaap van Zweden, Christoph Poppen, Gerhard Schultz, Schlomo Mintz, Schmuel Ashkenasi, Zakhar Bron, and Ray Chen.

Emma plays a violin built by Giovanni Grancino (1700–1705, Milan), provided by an anonymous benefactor. She also uses a bow made by C. Peccatte, which she was able to purchase with the help of the Stichting Eigen Muziekinstrumentenfonds.