Australian classical guitarist and lutenist, Emma-Shay Gallenti-Guilfoyle, delights international audiences with her charming persona. Known for her musical and sensitive playing, Emma-Shay enjoys sharing diverse and compelling repertoire.

Chamber music collaborations and new music projects are her passions. Contra Guitar Duo was formed by Emma-Shay and her partner, Hamish Strathdee, after they met at their university auditions a decade ago, and they have been making music together ever since. Their contrasting musical personalities and charming personal chemistry bring a dynamic spin to the fantastic combination of two guitars. In 2022, Emma-Shay worked on a number of new music projects including: Counterpoint, a multi-project collaboration between the Hochschule für Musik um Theater Hamburg, Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and the Hamburger Gitarrenforum; Blackbox Natur, a large scale new concert format project between the Elbphilharmonie, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and Hamburg University of Applied Sciences as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival; Loud Rooms, an immersive free improvisation event at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; and the Green Guitar, a long term project bringing together female forces in Australian composition to create new works for guitar inspired by the theme of ‘green’ in response to the climate crisis.

Emma-Shay has performed to audiences across the globe as part of World Expo Dubai Australia Pavilion 2022, the Melbourne Guitar Festival 2020 and Darmstädter Gitarrentage 2018. She was a finalist in the 2020 New York Guitar Competition, semi-finalist in the 2020 Deutscher Gitarrenpreis, finalist in the 2019 and 2016 Adelaide International Guitar Competition as well as in the 2015 Melbourne Guitar Festival International Guitar Competition.

Emma-Shay received a prestigious scholarship from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung to support her Masters study with Professor Olaf Van Gonnissen at the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre Hamburg, Germany. She was presented the Australian Music Foundation’s Guy Parsons Award to purchase a new hand-crafted Renaissance lute. In 2018, she received an artist grant from the PPCA Performers' Trust Foundation to support her postgraduate studies in Darmstadt and in her final year of Bachelor study in Australia, she received the Ken and Vera Fowler Honours Scholarship from the Australian National University for her outstanding level of musical accomplishment and the potential to make an outstanding contribution to music.

Emma-Shay began her guitar studies in Brisbane with Dr Paul Svoboda at Loreto College Coorparoo, and continued at the University of Queensland with Isolde Schaupp. She completed her Bachelor or Music at the Australian National University with First Class Honours studying under Minh Le Hoang. In 2020, Emma-Shay obtained her Künstlerisches Aufbaustudium at the Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt, Germany and recently received a Masters of Music from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with top marks where she studied with Prof. Olaf Van Gonnissen.