“I’m not just a teacher, I’m actively performing. And I love that I get to collaborate and connect with people all over the place. If they have a good foundation, it can take them in all sorts of directions,” says bassoonist and orchestra director Rachel (Meagher) Richards ’04.

Musician Finds Community Through Performance

Already an orchestra director with the Appleton (Wis.) School District, director of the New Horizons Orchestra and a bassoonist with the Green Bay Civic Symphony, Rachel (Meagher) Richards ’04 decided she didn’t quite have enough music in her life. Recommended by several people in the Fox Valley, Wis., community, she is now at the helm of youth orchestras for the Fox Valley Symphony.

The youth program is a way for young musicians, currently around 120 of them, to form bonds with each other, grow their skills and meet other musicians in the Fox Valley. “It’s performance focused. They have an opportunity to play challenging repertoire,” Richards says.

Participants can practice as a full symphony with all strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. There are three levels of skill within the symphony, each with its own conductor. The youngest student is in fourth grade, and the program takes students through high school graduation.

Music is for all ages
Richards has taught elementary and middle school orchestra – violin, viola, cello and bass – for 18 years, and she cherishes that she now has another avenue to nurture students’ growth. “I get to see my students outside of the school day. I get to connect with them and hear about their excitement and hear about their challenges. It’s like promoting the next generation of musicians,” she says.

“There is a musician in a community orchestra [New Horizons Orchestra] that I conduct in her 80s and she was my first strings teacher. I think developing this lifelong love for music making and being out there with one another is such an important piece,” says Richards. “It’s the coolest thing. I’m on the podium, and I’m looking at my musicians in front of me, and I see colleagues that I’ve taught with and have retired. And I see teachers that have had me as a student.

“There’s just something about being out there in it with everybody, and you have the shared goal and shared focus. That’s really inspiring to me.”

April 18, 2023