In her new EP Home Sweet Home, classical guitarist Emma Rush continues the work she began with her last release, spotlighting the music of 19th century composer Catharina Pratten. The three-song EP is combined with a video series that highlights the beauty of the Hamilton region she calls home.
Emma is not only a classical performer with an international reputation, she is something of a music detective who has unearthed music by forgotten women composers like Pratten.
On the new EP, Rush pairs each work with a video filmed in Hamilton’s historic landmarks. Together, the project combines music, heritage, and a sense of home. Home Sweet Home, the title track, also has a personal connection. The composition is based on a common song that her own grandparents used to sing.
“I feel like coming from Hamilton has really influenced me as a musician and I wanted to find a way to connect that sense of place with what I do,” Rush mentions in a statment.
LV caught up with Emma Rush to talk about the new release.
Emma Rush
Based in Hamilton, Ontario today, Emma Rush studied guitar at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree. She followed up with graduate studies, which she completed at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany.
She has since carved out a multifaceted career as performer, educator, and historical researcher who has brought the music of many forgotten women composers back into the spotlight.
Notable recent performances include appearances at the Altamira Shanghai International Guitar Festival (China), Festival de Guitarras Lagos de Moreno (Mexico), and Future Echoes Festival (Sweden). She performed on a cross-country train trip aboard The Canadian, and has played on stages across the country, including concerts in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia in 2025/26 alone. International performances this past season include the Iserlohn International Guitar Symposium in Germany and a U.K. tour.
As a recording artist, she has released several albums, including 2025’s The Life and Times of Catharina Pratten, which she dedicated to the Victorian guitar virtuoso and her contemporaries. It wasn’t the first time she has dedicated her work to the music of women composers. Her 2020 release Wake the Sigh was devoted to music written for the guitar by women in the 19th century, most of which had never been recorded previously.
As an educator, Emma has served as a guest lecturer at universities and colleges across Canada and the US, and often focuses on music history that brings performance, research, and advocacy together. She was Artist-in-Residence at the Fountain School of Performing Arts at Dalhousie University, and has completed two artistic residencies at the Sointula Art Shed in remote British Columbia. She is Co-Director of GuitarFest West in Calgary (AB), Director of the Pigeon Lake Guitar Retreat (ON), Hamilton Guitar Day (ON), Nelson Guitar Festival (BC), and a collaborator with Wakefield Guitar Festival (QC).
Emma Rush: The Interview
Home Sweet Home is already the second release where Rush features the work of Catharina Pratten. Is there more in store?
“There’s enough music for a couple more albums for sure,” Rush says.
The genesis for Home Sweet Home, however, was multi-pronged. “It started with a video project,” she explains. “My idea was to pair the music of Catharina Pratten and a vintage guitar that is a Pratten.”
She performs the music on a rare guitar that was signed by Pratten herself. The historic Pratten model guitar was built by Boosey and Sons, bearing not only Pratten’s signature, but her handwritten date and serial number.
It’s also about a sense of home that ties in perfectly with the title song.
“My artistic identity and my whole identity is influenced so much by coming from Hamilton,” she says. “As a classical musician, it’s not so easy to express that, unlike a singer-songwriter, for example.”
The three videos were recorded in historic Hamilton locations that date from about the same Victorian time period as Pratten’s music.
“I went to Dundurn Castle, and incredible historical landmark,” she says. “I went to the Print House, which is a backpackers’ hostel now.” Now called the Pring House, the backpackers’ hostel includes a gorgeous three-story staircase.
“And also the Customs House, now the Workers Arts Heritage Centre,” Emma notes. “I thought it was really inspiring to be able to play this old guitar from the 1850s in rooms where that guitar might have been played.”
Along with the authentic feel of a vintage guitar and location shoots, Rush wanted to include a new dimension to the recording.
“I’ve always wanted to put something out on vinyl,” she says, “and when I realized these three songs would fit on a 7-inch records, I just went for it.”
As she points out, when it comes to record sales and touring, a 7-inch vinyl release is much easier to transport than a full-length LP.
It’s proved a popular move with her fans.
“It’s been very positive,” she says of the feedback. “People love the format. They’re flying off the merch table where I’ve played so far. People are really enjoying the videos.”
While the videos are focused on Hamilton, she’s found that positive reaction extends far beyond the city limits.
“I think it’s a beautiful pairing of the visuals and the music,” she says.
The Music
Pratten was a guitar virtuoso, and not only wrote her own music, she developed a new way of notating her compositions. Her music is colourful and melodic. Two of the songs on the new EP have never been recorded before. Pratten’s music is romantic and rhythmic, and blends well with the sites she’s chosen for the videos.
“Home Sweet Home is based on There’s No Place Like Home,” Rush explains. “People really connect with the melody. It was a popular melody in the 1800s, but even young people recognize it.”
Pratten took the familiar song and created her own take on it.
“She set that melody for guitar. She plays around with the melody — it’s a theme and variations,” she explains.
For Rush, Pratten holds an endless fascination.
“Part of it is that I’m just so interested in her,” Emma says. “She’s such a success story for women in music, at a time when there were not a lot of paths to success in the field.”
As Rush points out, she was a pioneer in many ways.
“She was an influential educator. She was a publisher. She was involved with instrument development. She developed different kinds of notation,” she says.
“But of course, at the heart of it all is her music. Her music just draws me in. Her personality just jumps off the page. The melodies are really catchy, and she can really create a mood.”
Those moods incorporate a wide emotional range, and she often gave her works titles like Sadness, Weary, Forgotten.
“But, she also wrote some beautiful pieces about love that are so stirring.” Other pieces were inspired by specific characters or people, and include marches and dances. “She stays really true to her own life, but really brings out different characters in her music.”
Pratten was a musical storyteller.
“I think she really is one of those people, she doesn’t need words. She brings an idea to life through music in a way that really grabs me.”
There is still more music of hers that is left to explore.
Emma combines performance with her ongoing research into Pratten and her music. She is currently on tour, and was in Newfoundland to perform at the very first classical guitar festival in St. John’s, the Guitarnival, presented by the Atlantic Guitar Society (AGS), from July 23 to 26.
“And then I’m heading in London to do a little bit of research on Catharina Pratten,” Rush says.
On July 30, she’ll be attending the Iserlohn Guitar Symposium in Germany, and on August 11, GuitarFest West in Calgary.
“It’s a gift that keeps on giving.”
Listen To The Music
- You can download or stream Home Sweet Home, and buy the 7-inch vinyl record, on Bandcamp [HERE].
Are you looking to promote an event? Have a news tip? Need to know the best events happening this weekend? Send us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.
Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox HERE.
- INTERVIEW | Guitarist Emma Rush Talks About Her New EP And Video Project Home Sweet Home - July 28, 2026
- THE SCOOP | Measha Brueggergosman-Lee Awarded The Canada Council For The Arts Molson Prize - July 27, 2026
- THE SCOOP | 32 Performing Arts Organizations Team Up To Create Vancouver Cultural Precinct - July 27, 2026
