RACHAEL HUTCHINGS, pianist

Colorado pianist and composer Rachael Hutchings’s recent performances feature both standard classical repertoire and her own compositions. Rachael's compositional style is at once expressive, approachable, and innovative. Her settings of poetry by Rilke for voice and piano were featured on CPR’s “Colorado Spotlight,” performed with her husband, tenor Daniel Hutchings. Before arriving in Colorado in 2010, she was an active performer and music teacher in San Francisco. Rachael served as an instructor at the San Francisco Community Music Center and adjunct professor of piano at the University of San Francisco. 

She appears as a guest artist, visiting lecturer, and collaborative pianist. Rachael and her duet partner Hukum Singh Khalsa are Duo Semaphore, performing throughout the Denver area and beyond. She has served as an adjudicator and administrator for various student music programs and competitions, teaches piano and composition privately, and teaches at the Lamont Summer Music Academy. Composition students from her private studio have gone on to top college composition programs. Rachael is on the faculty at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, where she teaches piano repertoire. 

She began studying piano in her hometown of Iowa City, Iowa and earned her B.M.A. in piano performance at the University of Michigan School of Music. She completed a Master of Music degree in composition and piano performance at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music where she studied with Alice Rybak. In addition to music, Rachael is passionate about volunteering as a house manager at Sacred Heart House of Denver and as a math tutor at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.