Emily Palen, a professional violinist, composer, pianist and singer from Midland, MI has led a striking career of brazen innovation, spanning the genres of classical, rock, electronica and metal. Her emotional and artistic aesthetic is grounded in a deep knowing of music’s inherent ability to transform our lives and the world around us.

Her primary musical project is KnightressM1, an expansive violin-fronted metal band she founded in 2011. The genre-bending outfit fuses the raw power of metal, classical harmonic beauty, devastatingly heavy violin tones, and consciousness theory to create a fresh voice in an all-too-often redundant genre. 

Emily recorded and produced KnightressM1’s debut album “Dreams & Devastation” at Studio 606, home of the Foo Fighters. John Lousteau engineered and co-produced the album.  The 12-song concept album was released alongside three music videos Emily produced and directed to worldwide acclaim in September 2020. Emily is currently producing a second full-length KnightressM1 album with strong elements of electronica and house music.  She is set to record a third KM1 album in Paris in 2022, diving deep into the metal genre and in collaboration with European musicians.   

Emily, born in Midland MI to a cellist and a poet, began her classical violin and piano studies at the age of 4. From her early years she set her sights on a professional classical career, studying with notable teachers in Michigan including Michael Avsharian and Paul Kantor at the University of Michigan. She released her first solo violin improv album “Glass ~ Live at Grace Cathedral” in 2012 and “Creation” a year later.  Over the years she has played live and been a studio musician with The Foo Fighters, John Paul Jones, Eric McFadden,Gretchen Menn as well as countless other bands.

Emily is bringing her musical career to Paris in 2022 to both be a part of an immensely inspiring musical culture as well as to enrich her own performances with the influence of a country known for its incredibly deep artistic and musical bravery.