Emily Asher is a trombonist and singer of "buoyant charm” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times) in strong demand as a bandleader, sidewoman, and educator nationwide. As a leader, Asher has produced five CDs and led US and Israel tours with her band Emily Asher’s Garden Party and earned a prestigious Banff Centre Residency with her Endangered Species Trio. She recorded and performed with Wycliffe Gordon on his “Hello Pops!” tribute to Louis Armstrong, and was a member of Nicholas Payton’s Television Studio Orchestra. “Ms. Asher plays with both grit and grace” (Will Friedwald, The Wall Street Journal) and has shared the stage with a wide variety of artists including Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, Mø, Talib Kweli, Chaka Khan, Terri Lyne Carrington, and many others. Emily’s debut album, Dreams May Take You, featuring Wycliffe Gordon, was officially released April 15, 2012. Soon after followed the release of Emily Asher’s Garden Party’s six song EP: Carnival of Joy! a celebration of Hoagy Carmichael which the Wall Street Journal called a “superior album,” Endangered Species Trio, A "concentrated chamber group with the intriguing instrumentation of accordion, bass saxophone and trombone" (Seattle Times) released their six-song EP Home on the Range in 2014. Meet Me In The Morning, released in early 2015, features five original compositions including the title track as well as reverently re-imagined American Songbook classics.

Emily Asher’s Garden Party’s most recent and eclectic album, If I Were a Window, was recorded and released in 2020 with eight original compositions.

Originally from Seattle, Emily earned three Bachelors degrees from the University of Washington. Upon graduating in 2004 she was hired as the Director of Bands at Ballou Junior High School in Puyallup, Washington where she taught for three years. In May of 2009 she completed her Masters in music performance from CUNY Queens College.

Emily returned to her first love of teaching in 2020 and is currently an Elementary Music Specialist in the Bellingham Public Schools and is on the Jazz and Education Faculty at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. In 2022 she became a National Board Certified Teacher and will move back to Brooklyn, NY in the Summer of 2023 to continue teaching and performing.

Photograph by Nick Stone at Fraunces Tavern