Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Emily Champion grew up in a household filled with great music. Her grandfather was jazz tenor saxophonist Dick Champion, who was the lead tenor sax player of the Terrell Masters’ Big Band in upstate New York. Her maternal grandmother was a classical pianist, piano teacher, music educator, and musical director of her synagogue on Long Island. The music blasting through Champion’s house ranged from Count Basie and Buddy Rich to Grover Washington Jr. and Pat Metheny, the Beatles and Hendrix, Broadway musicals, classical piano and orchestra, and pretty much anything that sounded good.

Champion began teaching herself piano at age three, which is also when she began songwriting. She loved all music, but developed a special passion for jazz at age five. She started playing trumpet at nine and guitar at eleven. By thirteen, she was performing professionally on trumpet with Rochester band the BuddhaHood. She also formed her own ska band with other middle school musicians, Stolen Tango, where she co-wrote original songs and arranged horn parts. She began playing trumpet in the Hochstein Jazz Ensemble, directed by Bill Tiberio, and studied under trumpet monster Paul Gaspar.

In high school, Champion played trumpet in Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Brass Chamber Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Pit Orchestra. At sixteen, she was lead trumpet in the pit orchestra for Brighton High School’s production of West Side Story. At seventeen, she became the youngest member and only female instrumentalist of the Greater Rochester Jazz Orchestra, continuing to perform with the band on and off for five years.

Studying under jazz trumpet legend Paul Smoker, while also focusing on jazz performance and blues slide guitar, Champion graduated from Nazareth College with a bachelor’s degree in Music Business. Over the years, she has performed with Joe Beard, Danielle Ponder, Orquestra Antonetti, Teressa Wilcox, Suzi Willpower, Todd East, Subsoil, Grupo Ife, and numerous jazz combos.

While living in New York City, Champion frequented jams at Smalls Jazz Club, Mezzrow, Fat Cat, and Showman’s. She loved living in Sugar Hill in West Harlem and continued studying with jazz legends Steve Davis and Terence Blanchard. She also worked on lead trumpet playing with Anthony Rice out of Toronto.

In 2018, Champion moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue more opportunities as a freelance trumpet player. Just four months before COVID hit in 2020, she hauled ass back to New York City. During this period, she focused more heavily on composing and songwriting, started her company, Champion Music, and taught private lessons over video chat. She ultimately spent the next two years traveling the country in an RV.

Champion moved back to Rochester in 2023 and taught at the School of the Arts as a long-term substitute, directing Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble and teaching private lessons on all band instruments. She began teaching private lessons for Costello Music at the House of Guitars and ROC Star Academy while continuing to build her own teaching practice through Champion Music.

Champion also assists with nonprofit fundraising events for the Pirate Toy Fund and Howard Hanna’s Children’s Free Care Fund. She holds student recitals at ArtisanWorks and leads her own band, CHAMPION, where she performs her original music on piano and vocals.

In 2025, Champion was invited to teach a summer course in Jazz History for the Kosciuszko Foundation in Poland. She currently teaches more than 30 private students and performs with CHAMPION, Pass X the Krooks, Pawn Shop Krooks—a duo with Sara Pass—Sarah DeValliere, Cinnamon Jones, and the Sinai Brass Quintet.

Today, Champion is focused on songwriting and composition, expanding Champion Music, teaching, and performing whenever and wherever she can.