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Mickey Emch (voice) and Derek Emch (clarinet) are a married duo who began musical collaboration while trapped together in the 2020 quarantine.
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Mickey Emch, soprano, enjoys performing across a spectrum of operatic, choral, and chamber settings. She recently appeared with Toledo’s Ear | Eye chamber series, sang Pietho in a short tour of Soper’s Here Be Sirens, Angelina in Constantidines’ Rosanna in recital at Carnegie Hall, as the vocal soloist for Stephenson’s Symphony No. 2, and in BGSU New Music Festival’s performance of Reich’s Tehillim. Her favorite previous operatic roles include Anne Truelove in The Rake’s Progress, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Abigail Williams in The Crucible.

Mickey holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia, a Master's from Louisiana State University, and is pursuing her Doctorate in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University. Current creative projects include commissioning projects with friends, leading collegiate workshops in contemporary voice, and interning with production for WGTE public media. Her doctoral research centers around healthful vocal distortion techniques in opera, theatre, contemporary commercial music, and everywhere in between. When not singing, Mickey enjoys floral design, memes, and Murder She Wrote.

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Derek Emch is a clarinetist, improviser, and budding composer. He is a founding member of the John McCowen Quartet, Squirrel Noir, Vive Ensemble, and N/A Ensemble. His career in music has led to multiple appearances at several new music festivals such as Bowling Green State University’s New Music Festival, SPLICE Festival, Southern Illinois University’s Outside the Box, and University of Toledo’s Spring Festival of New Music. His activities as an improviser have led to improvised performances alongside Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, William O. Smith, and Eric Mandat. As a member of the John McCowen Quartet, Derek has played in record store backrooms, concert stages, and back porches. His clarinet duo Squirrel Noir, formed with Gunnar Hirthe has performed throughout Ohio, most recently under the headline of No Exit Ensemble in Cleveland. With Vive Ensemble, Derek has performed in such varied spaces as the Toledo Museum of Art, Urban Artifact Brewery in Cincinnati, and Farr Best Theater in Mansfield, Texas. As a member of N/A Ensemble, Derek has most recently collaborated with and performed in commissioned works by Jenna Lyle and Dennis Sullivan. Derek received his Master of Music degree from Southern Illinois University and his B.M. from Youngstown State University. He recently completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University, with his DMA document titled “Pathways to the Practice of Free Improvisation.”