Canadian-born, Scotland-based composer Emily Doolittle grew up in Halifax Nova Scotia and was educated at Dalhousie University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, Indiana University and Princeton University. From 2008-2015 she was  Assistant/Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Cornish College of the Arts. She now lives in Glasgow, UK, where she is an Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Composer and researcher Emily Doolittle has written for such ensembles as the Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), Symphony Nova Scotia, the Vancouver Island Symphony, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Kapten Trio, the Motion Ensemble and Paragon, and such soloists as sopranos Suzie LeBlanc, Janice Jackson, Patricia Green and Helen Pridmore, pianist Rachel Iwaasa, violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel, viola d'amorist Thomas Georgi and viola da gambist Karin Preslmayr.

Selected recent compositions include Dreams of Floating (2025) for Canadian pianist Rachel Iwaasa and visual artist SD Holman's Music for Turtles project; Cairn (based on poetry by Dawn Wood), commissioned by the McEwen Bequest for the Glasgow University Chapel Choir; Aviphonics (2024), commissioned by oboist Sarah Hamilton for a new book of oboe etudes; Varia (2024), commissioned by Soundstreams Toronto for solo keyboards; Lai du Laüstic (2024), commissioned by Ensemble Intercolor; (re)cycling I: metals (2023), commissioned by the Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg) for Architek Percussion; music for an Audible audiobook of Anne of Green Gables (2023); and Nightscape, Lusicinia, and Los Bilbilikos (2022), commissioned by Ensemble La Cigale.

Doolittle has a long-standing interest in zoomusicology (the relationship between animal songs and human music). Selected recent publications on this topic include “Playing music to animals: an interdisciplinary approach to improving our understanding of animals’ responses to music” (with Buddhamas Pralle Kriengwatana, Ruedi Nager, Alex South. Animal Behaviour 2025); “Sharp, Loud, Fast, Fierce: Encounters with a Gannetry” (Swiss Journal of Musicology, 2024), and “Quick Guide to Birdsong and Music” (Current Biology, 2022). Other research interests include the various intersections between the creative process and gender, parenthood, and health. Recent publications in this area include “Creativity, health and sustainability: A wholearchy of learning” (with Laura Bissell and Laura González, Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 2025), Composer and Mother (Routledge Handbook to Women’s Work in Music, 2021), and “Queer Perspectives in New Music” (with Gabriel Dharmoo, Annette Brosin, Anthony R. Green, Luke Nickel and Symon Henry, Circuit, 2021).

She is interested in developing interdisciplinary research generally, and is the founder of SHARE (Science, Humanities and Arts Research Exchange), which seeks to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations between people in the arts and people in the sciences or humanities at RCS, St Andrews, and beyond. She was awarded a 2020 Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop grant, together with Dr Sarah Hopfinger and Dr Stuart MacRae to organize a series of three workshops on Art-Making in the Anthropocene. 

She is currently supervising five PhD students, Anthony Cowie, Niroshini Thambar, Kate Sagovsky, Jaime Diaz, MK Kell de Cannart, and one DPerf student, Tianshu Li. Past doctoral students (now doctors!) include Alex South, Stephanie Lamprea and Lisa Robertson.

Supervision interests

Emily is interested in supervising research degree projects focusing on:
• Composition
• Zöomusicology
• Ecomusicology
• Animal songs and music
• Composition and interdisciplinary collaboration
• Gender and music
• Parenthood and music/creativity

Emily Doolittle has an ongoing research interest in zoomusicology, the study of the relationship between human music and animal songs. She recently spent 3 months as composer-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany. Other interests include the traditional music of various cultures, community music-making, music as a vehicle for social change, music and gender, and creativity and parenthood.