Violinist Rachel Saul, originally from Tucson, AZ, performs and teaches with an enthusiastic passion for music and its life changing benefits. Rachel has performed as a chamber musician, soloist, and symphonic member across North America and Europe. She is currently performing with the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra for the 2015-16 season, and has performed with the HSO since 2012. She has performed with other orchestras such as the Hawai'i Opera Theatre, Hawai'i Pops, Hawai'i Performing Arts Festival, O'ahu Choral Society, Maui Chamber Orchestra, Maui Pops Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, Northbrook Symphony Orchestra and more.
Rachel has served as Concertmaster for the Benefit Orchestra in Honolulu, Palaver Strings, BU Choral Society Orchestra, BU Chamber Orchestra, BU Opera Orchestra, and the North Shore Chamber Orchestra among others, often responsible for several substantial solos. With the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Maestro Benjamin Zander, she performed at several of Boston's premiere halls: NEC's Jordan Hall, Harvard's Sanders Theatre and the BSO's renowned Symphony Hall. At several chamber recitals in Boston, she performed Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, "A Soldier's Tale."
A graduate of Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, she received her Bachelor of Music (B.Mus) studying under Gerardo Ribeiro, where she was a recipient of the Captain Maxwell W. Balfour Endowed Scholarship. During her undergraduate years at Northwestern, Rachel often held leadership positions with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Victor Yampolsky.
She received her Master of Music (M.Mus) degree from Boston University College of Fine Arts studying under Peter Zazofsky, who is a member of the Muir String Quartet as first violin. Peter has appeared as soloist in 23 countries with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra and more; he won the Grand Prize in the Montreal International Competition, the Second Prize of the 1980 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and he received the 1985 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Both of Rachel's primary teachers, Mr. Ribeiro and Mr. Zazofsky, were students of the famed Ivan Galamian.
Rachel enjoyed performing at the Hawai'i Performing Arts Festival in 2014, performing Handel's Julius Caesar in a baroque chamber orchestra. She has participated in the American Institue for Musical Studies (AIMS) Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria for three years (2010-12), performing in Austria's second largest concert hall Grazer Congress Stefaniensaal, on tour in the Styrian province and in a series of chamber music concerts. Additional summer music festivals she has performed with include the National Orchestral Institute, performing one week as Principal Second Violin, Atlantic Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Rocky Ridge Music Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp, and Chamber Music in the Mountains. Selected for the prestigious Atlantic Music Festival Fellowship in 2009, she collaborated with world renowned artists such as violinist Jamie Laredo.
Chamber music is Rachel's true passion, and she has received master classes and coachings with renowned world-class String Quartets such as the Muir, Pacifica, Takács, Pro Arte, Chiara, St. Petersburg, Miami, Chester, and Vermeer String Quartets. Experience with other professional chamber and symphonic musicians include masterclasses and coachings by Lucia Lin of the Boston Symphony, Paul Roby and Amy Oshiro of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Katherine Murdock, Peter Slowik, Matthias Tacke, Peter Lloyd, Charles Pickler, Li-Kuo Chang, and Peter Salaff, among others. In addition, Rachel has appeared as a soloist in masterclasses with Emanuel Borok, the late Roman Totenberg and Simin Ganatra. Rachel made her solo debut appearing as a featured soloist with the Tucson Pops Orchestra in 2006, performing the Bruch Violin Concerto.
Currently, she resides in Honolulu, Hawai'i and enjoys performance and teaching opportunities in the community. Recent chamber music appearances include the University of Hawai'i Contemporary Music Ensemble, as well as faculty chamber recitals at Orvis Auditorium at UH Manoa. In the fall of 2013, she became the head of the new After-School Strings Program at the Mid-Pacific Institute Elementary, and is a Teaching Artist with Kalikolehua - El Sistema Hawai’i. Additionally, she maintains a private violin studio and coaches chamber music at Punahou Music School.
