Rachel Woolf
flute
About Rachel Woolf
Dr. Rachel Woolf serves as Assistant Professor of Instruction of Flute at the University of Texas at San Antonio School of Music. Under her leadership, the UTSA Flute Ensemble has been invited to perform twice at the National Flute Association (NFA) Convention and at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention (TMEA 2023), the Austin Flute Festival (2022), the Texas Flute Society Festival (2021), and the San Diego Flute Guild Festival (2021). In 2021, Rachel commissioned four compositions for the UTSA Flute Ensemble to perform at NFA, three by UTSA alumni composers.
Accomplished as a multidimensional artist, Rachel is Principal Flute of Symphony of the Hills, flutist in Dallas based symphonic pop rock band, The Polyphonic Spree, and a member of middle eastern fusion group Viatorum. Rachel has performed at the NFA Convention six times—most recently she participated in the NFA’s 2022 premiere performance of Julia Wolfe’s Oxygen. Rachel has also performed with the San Antonio Philharmonic, Air Force Band of the West, Dallas Winds, East Texas Symphony Orchestra, Abilene Philharmonic, Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, among others, and spent two summers performing at the Brevard Music Center. She has performed under the baton of such luminaries as JoAnn Falletta, Keith Lockhart, Leonard Slatkin, Peter Oundjian, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jeff Tyzik, Marin Alsop, and Mattias Barnert. She has also performed with Swedish-Argentinian indie folk singer José González, Iranian pop legend Aref, multi-platinum operatic-pop superstars Il Divo, GLEE star and Emmy-winning Darren Criss, and has recorded with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton on experimental rock band Swans record, The Glowing Man (2016). Not one to be boxed in by notes on a page, she has sought out an array of opportunities to improvise—from freeform to jazz to Indian ragas. Notably, she was selected to perform traditional Hindustani North Indian flute during the Dalai Llama’s visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Rachel previously taught flute and chamber music at Brookhaven College and extensively across the DFW metroplex. She has given masterclasses and clinics at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Oregon, SUNY Potsdam, Lamar University, Baylor University, Oklahoma State University, Texas Lutheran University, Grand View University, and Central College. She has been a Guest Artist Teacher at Texas A & M Commerce and has given clinics and recitals at the Austin Flute Society’s Festival, Texas Flute Society’s Festival, Texas Summer Flute Symposium, Floot Fire camps, among others. She has also been on judging panels for the Texas Music Education’s Association (TMEA) All-State Convention, Myrna Brown Competition (Texas Flute Society), and VOCE Competition (San Diego).
An avid champion of contemporary music, Rachel has been a founding member of multiple new music groups in Ann Arbor and Los Angeles and has premiered numerous new works for flute and piccolo, including Paul Schoenfield’s Psychobird (A Sonatina for Piccolo and Piano) with Paul Schoenfield on piano. She can be heard premiering works by William Bolcom and Jennifer Higdon on the widely released Classical Structures with the University of Michigan Symphony Band on Equilibrium Records. Additionally, she can be heard playing principal and bass flute on the GIA Windworks label, Canvases and Offerings, with the UNT Wind Symphony.
