Rachel
performs professionally on viola da gamba and baroque cello throughout
the Midwest, New England and beyond. Active as both a soloist and continuo
player, Rachel has collaborated with a variety of chamber ensembles including
Long & Away and The Sprightly Companions. She is the
artistic director of Cascata, an ensemble specializing in seventeenth
century dramatic vocal music of Italy and virtuosic instrumental genres.
Rachel is also a professional chorister, singing at various churches in
Cleveland.
Increasingly in demand as a teacher, Rachel has taught viola da gamba at the Amherst Early Music Festival and Brandeis University as well as at workshops in Toronto and New England. She currently directs the Case Western/CIM Viol Consort and maintains a private viola da gamba studio in Cleveland.
Rachel received a Young Artist Grant-in-Aid from the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA) and has been awarded various scholarships for both her performing talents and academic research in early music. She writes articles and reviews for VdGSA News as well as program notes for New England area ensembles. She recently completed a rersearch and performance project entitled "A Fashion for Spectacle: The Viola Bastarda in the Early Seventeeth Century." Her plans for 2009-2010 include a stylistic examination of the works of eighteenth century French composer Charles Dollé, who wrote for both bass viola da gamba and the pardessus de viole.
Rachel discovered the viola da gamba while at Brandeis University where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Historical Musicology. She then finished Graduate Diploma studies in Early Music Performance at the Longy School of Music. Rachel is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University where she studies viola da gamba with Catharina Meints and baroque cello with René Schiffer.
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Treble Viol by Kazuya Sato, Japan, 1981. English
consort model.
6-string Bass Viol by Peter Tourin, Vermont, 1983. Division bass after
Henry Jaye.
Baroque Cello by John Friedrich, Germany, 1914. Baroque set-up by Warren
Ellison, Vermont, 2006.
