SMTD Horn Faculty Ben Wulfman and Scott Strong perform a recital, joined by guest artist Rachel Childers (BM ’03, MM ’06, horn), a 2024 SMTD Alumni Award winner.

GUEST ARTIST BIO

Michigan native RACHEL CHILDERS (BM ’03, MM ’06, horn) has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) since 2011, the first female member of the BSO brass section. As second horn of the BSO, she occupies the John P. II and Nancy S. Eustis chair. Prior to the BSO, Childers was the acting assistant principal/utility horn of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She also held several positions in orchestras throughout California. Childers was in the first class of horn players admitted to the Colburn School, in Los Angeles, where she studied with David Jolley and David Krehbiel. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at SMTD, where she studied with Sören Hermansson. During her time at U-M she enjoyed performing with both the University Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Band, where she began her college career as horn 4B under director H. Robert Reynolds.

Childers is devoted to education initiatives and is particularly proud of the implementation of the “BSO in Residence” project in her adopted community of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Childers also develops and performs programs for the BSO’s “Concerts for Very Young People” at local libraries and children’s museums.

Childers is currently on faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she is also chair of winds, brass, and percussion chamber music. During the summers, she teaches at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Tanglewood Music Center, and Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She and her husband Sam, a bassoonist, have two lovely children and one loud cat.