Emily Howard Meyer is an accomplished Jewish educator, composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, singer, and pianist. Rabbi Emily is the owner of oySongs.com, a Jewish music distribution website and ComposerGirl Publications, a boutique music publication company.
She received a double Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and Theory/Composition at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and a Masters of Music in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. She has studied with composers Robert Ehle, Jean Echleberger-Ivey, Ronald Caltabiano and Chen Yi. Her secular and liturgical compositions have been performed by orchestras and groups throughout the country. She is also one of the editors and contributors of Kol Isha: Songs and Settings of Prayers, commissioned by the Women Cantors’ Network and is the first Jewish songbook comprised completely of music by Jewish women composers. Emily also served for many years on the board of the Women Cantors’ Network.
In 2025, Emily received a Master in Arts in Jewish Studies in addition to her rabbinic ordination from the Academy of Jewish Religion, a pluralistic, non-denominational seminary in Yonkers, NY. As part of her training, Emily interned for a year and a half as a rabbinic chaplain and student rabbi at the Charles E. Smith Lifecare Communities in Rockville, MD.
An avid teacher, Emily has taught all aspects of music at Eastern Wyoming College, Finger Lakes Community College and at the Omaha Conservatory of Music. She has also shared her love of Jewish music and education as a religious school specialist at Temple Israel and Beth El Synagogues of Omaha, NE, Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, MD, and B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, MD. In 2022, after 11 years, she “rewired” from her position as Cantorial Soloist and music educator at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD to pursue her rabbinical studies.
Emily Howard Meyer lives in Rockville, MD with her husband Gabe, their teenage twins Ella and Owen and three cats. Emily has an active artistic life as a weaver, knitter, spinner, felter, dyer, potter, carpenter, cake maker and gluten-free baked goods inventor.