Dr. Rachel Yoder

Dr. Rachel Yoder is adjunct professor of clarinet at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK, and works as a private instructor and clarinetist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She has also taught as a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas, where she recently completed her D.M.A. in clarinet performance. She holds degrees from Michigan State University and Ball State University, and has studied with James Gillespie, Caroline Hartig, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, and Gary Whitman.

Rachel was a winner of the UNT Concerto Competition in 2009, performing Scott McAllister’s X with the UNT Symphony Orchestra. She was a recipient of the prestigious Priddy Fellowship in Arts Leadership for the 2007-2008 school year, which culminated in an internship with Dallas’s new music group Voices of Change. Rachel also received the “Outstanding Graduate Student in Woodwinds” award from the UNT College of Music in 2008 and 2010.

Rachel has performed and recorded with the UNT Wind Symphony, performed as principal clarinet with the UNT Chamber Orchestra and Opera Orchestra, and is currently bass clarinetist for the Sherman Symphony and the Chameleon Chamber Group. She also has performed with the Irving Symphony Orchestra as principal clarinet and bass clarinet.  As clarinetist in the Madera Wind Quintet, Rachel recently went on tour in Texas and Oklahoma.

Rachel enjoys collaborating with composers to perform new works for clarinet. She has performed works for clarinet and electronics at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Austin, TX; Pixilerations New Media Festival at Brown University in Providence, RI; and at LaTex electroacoustic festivals in Denton and Houston, TX. Rachel also serves as Executive Director of the Dallas Festival of Modern Music.

Rachel is co-author of “Clarinet Cache,” a regular column in The Clarinet journal about clarinet web content, and the accompanying Clarinet Cache blog.