A native of Kansas City, Missouri (b. November 24, 1927), Emma Lou Diemer received her degrees in music composition from the Yale School of Music (BM, MM) and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D.).

She studied further in Brussels on a Fulbright Scholarship and at Tanglewood. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she taught composition and theory from 1971 to 1991. She has been composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony, and is organist emerita at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara.

Diemer has received annual ASCAP awards since 1962 for performances and publications. Other recognition includes a Louisville Orchestra Student Award, a Ford Foundation Young Composers Grant for a 2-year composer-residency in the Arlington, VA schools, an NEA fellowship in electronic music, a Kennedy Center Friedheim award for her Concerto in One Movement for Piano, the American Guild of Organists Composer of the Year award, a Mu Phi Epsilon Merit Award, etc., plus numerous commissions. A recent (2001) biography of ELD by Ellen Grolman Schlegel is published by Greenwood Press: A Bio-Bibliography, Emma Lou Diemer.

In publication since 1957, her music includes works for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voices, and electronic pieces. She has received numerous commissions from schools, churches, and professional groups. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, Hildegard Publishing Company, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, The Sacred Music Press, Arsis Press, Treble Clef Press, MMB Music, and others. Recordings include works on the Vienna Modern Masters label (Encore for Piano), North/South Consonance (Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello; A Requiem for Woodwind Quintet and String Quintet), Living Artists (String Quartet No. 1), Leonarda (Fantasy for Piano--also on Fleur de Son Classics), Josara Records (Four Chinese-Love Poems), Dixon-Broyles Productions (Psalms for Organ and organ and other instruments), Contemporary Record Society label (Suite of Homages; Poem of Remembrance for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra), Master Musicians Recordings (Concerto in One Movement for Piano; Santa Barbara Overture), TNC Recordings (Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord), Albany Records (Concerto in One Movement for Organ; Before Spring for Violin and Piano), and others.