Emily Lapisardi
Emily Lapisardi is a multifaceted performer, scholar, and author. She is currently Director of Musical Activities for the Catholic Chapel of the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY), where she directs the West Point Catholic Chapel Choir for services at the Academy and touring appearances including the nationally-televised funeral liturgies of medal of honor recipient Chaplain Emil Kapaun. After a brief ballet career in the US and Ukraine, she studied opera in college and at several international training programs including the Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera (Oderzo, Italy), American Singers Opera Project of North Carolina, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. An accomplished organist, pianist, and conductor, she serves on the faculty of the Sacred Music Institute of America. Emily grew up in the theatre; her father was a dramaturg for several seasons of the Yeats Festival at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland and her mother was an acting teacher.
Emily has presented first-person portrayals of historical figures including Jenny Lind, Rose Greenhow, and Sarah Bernhardt for museums, historical societies, educational institutions, Civil War round tables, National Park Service sites, and living history events in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. She is also the editor of Rose Greenhow's My Imprisonment: An Annotated Edition, which debuted as the highest-ranking new release in Amazon.com's U. S. Civil War Women's History category in the spring of 2021, and serves as a board member for the Society for Women and the Civil War. She is a co-founder of Eternity Box Films, an independent production company specializing in period pieces and literary adaptations, and has acted in ten feature films and served as costume designer for several productions.
Emily holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from West Virginia University (where she was named a WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior and received the university’s nomination for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships), a Masters degree in Sacred Music from Duquesne University, and a certificate in Catholic Liturgy from the University of Notre Dame's STEP program. As a musicologist, she received the Communal Studies Association’s research fellowship for her work on the hymnody of American communal societies and has presented at a range of national and international conferences.
Additionally, Emily founded the vocal music program, demonstrated sericulture, and served on the board of Old Economy Village, where she was named Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Volunteer of the Year. She was awarded the U.S. Army Civilian Service Commendation medal in 2023 for her work as Director of Music at the Catholic Chapel of the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY).