Horn player Rachel Velvikis is in high demand across the country, known for her versatile style and exuberantly bold playing. She is currently a member of the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra in Virginia, a position she has held since 2010. Other symphonic experiences include holding the acting principal chair of the Richmond Symphony for the 2010/11 season, performing with the La Crosse Symphony since 2022, the Roanoke Symphony since 2018, the Virginia Symphony since 2010, the Artosphere Festival Orchestra since 2019, the Richmond Ballet and Virginia Opera since 2008, the principal horn of the Wisconsin Ambassadors of Music, the New World Symphony in Miami, and has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony.
Velvikis has been the core horn member of Seraph Brass, a professionally touring all-female brass quintet, since 2016. With Seraph, she has performed at the Lieksa Brass Week in Finland twice, at the Forum Cultural Guanajuato Festival in Mexico, at the International Trumpet Guild in Miami the summer of 2019, in Busan, South Korea in late 2019, and she toured for three weeks throughout China in earlier 2019. Seraph released their first album, Asteria, through Summit Records in 2017, which won a 2018 silver medal with the Global Music Awards.
As a chamber musician, she is the first call horn player for the Virginia Repertory Theater in Richmond, Virginia. She has also played with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the
Grammy-nominated ensemble A Far Cry in Boston, the Eckhart and Atlantic Chamber Ensembles in Richmond, the Richmond Chamber Players, and the Richmond Symphony’s wind and brass quintets. Being in front of or a part of non-traditional horn or classical groups has always been a passion for Velvikis. She was the lead singer of a professionally touring
three-piece band, The Ecolimes, where she sang uniquely composed creations of already popular songs, oftentimes not just playing her horn, but trumpet and flugelhorn as well. Another non-traditional band of which she was a part was the Evil Monkey Brothers’ Band in their performance of a rock opera, The Space Monkey Odyssey. She was both singer and dancer for these performances, with later performances adding her playing horn improv. Another group she is proud to add to her resume is Rocktopussy, a James Bond cover band, where she again incorporated multiple brass instruments on top of singing vocals. In short, Rachel Velvikis does not shy away from the microphone, nor movement!
Ms. Velvikis has been lucky enough to be the soloist in front of several orchestras throughout her career. In 2020, Velvikis was the recipient of the Howard Brown Artist in Residence award at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She gave a solo performance of the Gliere Horn Concerto in front of the University of Wisconsin Orchestra to a standing ovation. In 2019 she was featured as the guest soloist for A Brass Spectacular and performed Villanelle by Paul Dukas and Richard Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1, along with a specially arranged version of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen for her and her trumpet-playing father by arranger Ken Norman in front of the Belle City Brassworks in Racine, Wisconsin. She also gave a performance of Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings by Benjamin Britten with the Kenosha Chamber Players, as well as another rendition of Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1 with the Lakeshore Philharmonic, both in Wisconsin.
Velvikis was a Siegfried’s Call Performing Artist from 2017 until 2020 when the company disbanded. She is currently a Yamaha Performing Artist. Other awards she has received include a full scholarship to the Mannes School of Music, two awards while still in high school for the Milwaukee Young Artists Competition, winner of the Concerto Competition with the Lakeshore Philharmonic, and was principal horn with the Wisconsin State Honors Orchestra. Summer festivals include the Marlboro Music Festival, the Lake Luzerne Music Festival, the Wisconsin Ambassadors Orchestra where she toured thirteen European countries, and the Artosphere Music Festival.
Education is a huge part of Velvikis' mission to spread the joy of music. She has been the adjunct faculty horn professor at the University of Richmond since 2010, has had a private studio in every city she has worked since 2001, and teaches masterclasses. Schools for which she has given group masterclasses for all instruments include The Interlochen School of the Arts, Montana State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northeastern Illinois University, Tennessee Tech and the University of Tennessee, Penn State-Erie, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver, among many others. Classes and lessons are available both in-person and virtual. She is also on faculty virtually at the Greater Richmond School of Music, where she teaches beginning classes on a multitude of instruments, including flute, saxophone, trumpet, voice and piano. Traveling to grade schools to give special concerts are common in Velvikis' life, with her performing Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for two months with the Williamsburg Symphony in both 2019 and 2020, as well as performing in quintets with the Richmond Symphony’s Musical Ambassador Program.
Mentors and private lesson teachers number many in Velvikis' life, and she has each of them to thank for her fruitfully exciting career. They include Radovan Vlatkovic, Mary Elizabeth Bowden, Raquel Rodriquez, David Jolley, William Barnewitz, Paul Taylor and Sandor Sabo, the latter two being her grade school music directors in Kenosha, Wisconsin.