Upon returning from a year of traveling the world exploring the healing power of music within the climate crisis, Emma Kieran Schaefer will lead January's Every Choir. Like the Colorado Rocky Mountains she calls home, Emma’s musical storytelling brings listeners to new perspectives, showing them an expansive hopefulness and a strength rooted in our connection to one another and the Earth. Growing up listening to Nanci Griffith, John Denver, and numerous bluegrass bands, Emma weaves these musical influences with contemporary folk inspirations such as Anaïs Mitchell, Joy Oladokun, Sarah Jarosz, and Noah Kahan. She has been writing, recording, and performing for over 10 years, and was recognized early in her career in 2016 by eTown’s Handmade Songs Competition, where she was selected as a winner for her original song, "Rearranged," by a panel of judges including Gregory Alan Isakov. An advocate for environmental, climate, and social justice, Emma’s music looks to nature to help us understand our complex human experience and remind us that we, too, are nature. In May 2023, she released an album about Iowa ecosystems as part of her senior thesis at Grinnell College titled Sowing Songs. As a 2023-24 recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Emma returns in August 2024 after traveling the world for a year on a journey of independent research across many continents and cultures, learning from musicians, educators, artists, Indigenous traditions, and activists about the role of music to help address the climate crisis. She has also performed at many venues and festivals along the way. Emma plans to release a live album of songs she has written on this world journey in Fall 2024.