Violinist Rachelle Elizabeth Puccini is an active soloist, clinician and Eastman Artist. She has played with orchestras, and in venues throughout the country and abroad. A sought after clinician, her pedagogical ideas have been presented internationally in the Dominican Republic and in Canada. She has most recently presented internationally at OMEA in Ontario, Canada, and nationwide at; WI-ASTA in Wisconsin, ACOSA in Philadelphia, ILMEC in Illinois, DuPage County Music Educators Association Conference, and ECMEA in addition to a week long residency in Montana. In the Fall of 2020, an article she wrote, “Beyond the Shoulder Rest,” based on her clinic by the same title, was featured in the publication The Scroll. This upcoming season she will be presenting at The Midwest Conference, and again at ILMEC. She is frequently invited as a guest artist and clinician at schools and universities. As a soloist and recitalist Ms. Puccini frequently collaborates with pianist Paul Hamilton. Together they have recorded Kreisler’s Liebesfreud and Libeslied, and the work Fratres by Arvo Part. They have also collaborated in film, creating a film using the audio for the work Fratres, which was released in the summer of 2020. Orchestrally, she frequently plays with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Oistrakh Symphony, Northbrook Symphony, and Orchestra Nacional in the Dominican Republic. Past highlights have been joining the Munich Symphony on a five week tour throughout the USA in 2011, playing Carnegie Hall with the Oistrakh Symphony in 2018 and 2019, and featured as soloist and concertmaster for the Whiting Park Symphony Orchestra in 2017. As an Eastman artist, she teaches and performs all her educational engagements on an Eastman violin model VL928. In Chicago, she has built a successful violin studio, and is currently on faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago. Ms. Puccini holds a Masters degree in Violin Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University where she studied with Gerardo Ribeiro, and a Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance from Grand Valley State University where she studied with international soloist, violinist Dylana Jenson. She has also studied with violinist and pedagog Olga Kaler. Ms. Puccini concertizes on a 2015 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin made especially for her. In her spare time Rachelle enjoys painting, running, and the occasional triathlon.