About

Dr. Rachel O’Connor is a French hornist who has performed internationally as a soloist and orchestral musician. She is currently based in Los Angeles, California, where she performs with orchestras and for top industry clients such as Netflix, AppleTV and Coachella.

Rachel has performed with professional orchestras such as the Phoenix Symphony and National Arts Center Orchestra, and held the position of 4th horn with the American Youth Symphony from 2021-2024. Rachel was also a member of the National Repertory Orchestra in 2021 and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada from 2015-2018.

Rachel earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Horn and Master of Musicology from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in 2022. Rachel has also toured with the legendary Dallas Brass.

Rachel also enjoys doing research and won the American Musicological Society’s Irving Lowens Award in 2021 for her research on the forced migration of El-Sistema trained Venezuelan musicians. In 2019 Rachel was the recipient of the Presser Graduate Music Award, which she used to do a teaching artist tour in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. When Rachel isn’t practicing or teaching, she enjoys spending time with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.