After a successful career as a violist in the United States, violinist and violist Emily Deans moved to Germany in 2014 in order to pursue her curiosity for early music. Since then, she has established herself as an in-demand performer and has appeared with well-known groups such as Concerto Köln, the Netherlands Bach Society and La Folia Barockorchester. She is regularly asked to lead groups such as the capella sollertia and Concerto München as guest concertmaster, and she will also be joining Hofkapelle München as guest principal violist in their upcoming season.

The multi-year "Wagner-Lesarten" project with Concerto Köln and Shunske Sato has led Emily to an intensive study of romantic performance practice. Since then, she has begun to experiment with performance practice techniques from the nineteenth century, including highly flexible rubati, portamenti and the art of legato. Emily's doctoral dissertation at the New England Conservatory of Music, which focused on practical historical performance topics related to Mozart's Third Violin Concerto, has paved the way for a number of exciting and varied projects based in intensive, artistic academic work. Together with her chamber music partner Robert Schröter on the fortepiano, she recently worked on a concert program built around the music and travels of Mozart's son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. The project was funded by the Deutsche Musikrat and Bayern's cultural promotion scholarship program "Junge Kunst und Neue Wege."

Before deciding to devote herself to historical performance practice, Emily pursued a successful career as a modern violist for several years, which took her to the podiums of renowned concert halls and festivals both as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles and orchestras. Emily was a regular substitute with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic. From 2015 to 2016 she was associate principal violist of Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.

Emily began studying the violin in Dallas, Texas when she was five years old. Her promising talent was soon noticed by the concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Emanuel Borok, who took her on as a pupil when she was seven. Emily made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of twelve, and joined them again under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch when she was sixteen. During her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music with Kim Kashkashian, she received Second Prize and the Primrose Prize at the 11. Primrose International Viola Competition in 2008, and First Prize und the Audience Award at the 2009 Washington International Competition for Strings.

Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in violin and an Artist Diploma in viola from the Curtis Institute of Music. She subsequently received a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music in historical performance practice from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz München, where she studied with Mary Utiger.