Rachel McClellan

Violinist Rachel Leigh McClellan has acquired an international presence performing and competing across the globe. Winner of the 2024 PRISMA Music Festival Concerto Competition, she performed with the PRISMA Festival Orchestra in British Columbia, as well as receiving third prize in the 2022 Leopold Auer International Violin and String Quartet Competition based in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was awarded first prize in the 2026 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Scholarship Competition, 2022 Atlanta Music Club Scholarship Competition, and 2019 John H. Head Scholarship Competition. McClellan has appeared numerous times as a soloist with orchestra, most recently with the IU Jacobs Concert Orchestra as winner of the Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto Competition. She has received awards for her musicianship, including the Hugh and Jessie McKee Hodgson Scholarship, Fantona Fowler Bisson Scholarship, Bennett Family Scholarship for Orchestral Performance, and Claassen Orchestra Award.

McClellan has attended summer music festivals around the world, performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Many such performances took place at the International Festival of Winter in Vale Veneto, Brazil, PRISMA Festival and Academy in BC, Canada, as well MasterWorks Music Festival and Chamber Music Athens Festival in the United States. A fellow of the 2026 Bowdoin International Music Festival, McClellan is also a fellow of the 2026 Colorado College Summer Music Festival.

McClellan’s orchestral experience includes services as concertmaster, co-concertmaster, assistant concertmaster, and principal second. She holds a Bachelor’s performance degree from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia, and a Masters Degree from the IU Jacobs School of Music. Currently pursuing a Doctorate in performance at Jacobs, she studies under the tutelage of Simin Ganatra. McClellan plays an Antonio Guadagnini c. 1850 on loan from the Jacobs School.