Harpist Dr. Rachel Brandwein is the winner of the 2014 Mu Phi Epsilon International Solo Competition. She was the Mu Phi Epsilon Concert Artist for the 2014-2016 concert seasons and performed and gave outreach presentations throughout the continental United States.

Rachel is on faculty at St. Olaf College, and has presented master classes around the United States as well as in Asia.  Among her performance and composition accomplishments are first prizes and grants in numerous regional and national competitions sponsored by the American Harp Society, the American String Teachers Association, and Mu Phi Epsilon.

In addition to solo, chamber, and orchestral appearances in Ireland, Taiwan, and China, Rachel embarked on a nine state, fifteen concert tour with Trio Matisse (flute, cello, harp) as sponsored by the Allied Concert Services tours. She frequently performs with various ensembles throughout the United States, including the National Lutheran Choir, with whom she also records. Rachel is a regular substitute harpist with the Minnesota Orchestra and has performed concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra under conductors Osmo Vänskä, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Mark Wigglesworth. She debuted in Hong Kong, and Chiayi, Taiwan, with flutist Linda Chatterton in 2016 and the duo completed a chamber music tour of the Midwest in 2018. Rachel toured the Midwest as a featured concerto soloist faculty member with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra in 2018 and 2020.

In 2013 Rachel was awarded the top prize in the Mu Phi Epsilon Original Composition Contest for her work for harp solo Introduction, Theme, & Variations. In 2014, by invitation from the American Harp Society, she performed a full recital of her compositions at the National Conference in New Orleans. In 2015, she was awarded a commission grant by the American Harp Society to write a work for Apple Orange Pair (horn and harp), and that summer she completed a residency as a composer with the duo at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute.

The same work written for them, Suite de Nature, received the top prize in the 2015 Original Composition Contest sponsored by Mu Phi Epsilon. Since its premiere in 2015, it has been performed with horn, trombone, and flute. Her harp solos received the ARCH Awards from the American Harp Society Minnesota Chapter in 2013 and 2015.

She finished a work for organ and harp, The King’s Calling, which was commissioned by the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and it was premiered on their Chamber Music Concert Series in 2017. She was also commissioned by the same concert series and wrote meditation on s p a c e for harp and organ in 2020. She and organist Dr. Aaron David Miller enjoy concertizing as a duo, and performed by invitation at the 2019 and 2022 American Harp Society National Institute and Conferences. Their programs featured original works for the pair by them both, as well as a work they co-wrote, Harp String Pipe Swing for organ and harp.

Rachel served on the committee and co-presented a composition master class workshop with composer Libby Larsen during the new Young Composer’s Program at the 2017 American Harp Society National Institute. She also shared a concert with featured student composers, which included her performance of her original work, The Pattern Wheel: Suite for Harp Solo. In 2018 Brandwein completed a commission for harp ensemble entitled the square spinning orbit, also generously funded by the American Harp Society. Her compositions have been performed at venues such as the University of Michigan, University of Indiana, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, University of Minnesota, Kansas State University, Sacramento State University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, National Chiayi University in Taiwan, and at Interlochen Center for the Arts where she served on the faculty during their summer camp season for ten summers. In 2019 Rachel produced her second album of original harp solo and ensemble works, String Motifs, which can be purchased on CDBaby.

Rachel earned degrees from the University of Michigan (BM), The Juilliard School (MM), and Stony Brook University (DMA), and also studied harp and French for one year in Paris and Lyon, France. Her goal as an educator is to help her students appreciate and fulfill their artistic potential with confidence, creativity, and courage. Please visit Rachel's website for more information, at: www.rachelbrandwein.com