RACHEL BUCHMAN
Lecturer in Music
Head of the Young Children's Division

2234 Alice Pratt Brown Hall 713-348-4854

RACHEL BUCHMAN is a native New Yorker. She has sung at New York's Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for Da Camera of Houston, and in many other cities. Her six solo albums, on Rounder Records and A Gentle Wind labels, include: Shine Little Candles – a Grammy Awards semi-finalist (2001); Sing a Song of Seasons – named one of Six Best Recordings by Sesame Street Parents Magazine (1997); and Hello Everybody! Playsongs and Rhymes from a Toddler's World – winner of The American Library Association, Parents' Choice and Oppenheim Toy awards. She was invited to contribute to the composite album, Hear and Gone in 60 Seconds, with Ella Jenkins and many other artists. The album has won more than 8 awards and was a Grammy Awards semi-finalist (2003). Miss Buchman’s rhymes are used on Scholastic’s “Circle Time Sing-Along.” Her book, Jewish Holiday Songs for Children, was published by Mel Bay (1997). She has published articles in the “American Dalcroze Journal” and “HAAEYC Advocate.”

Miss Buchman has narrated with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Carlos Prieto conductor (December 2004). She collaborates regularly with Larry Rachleff, music director of the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, Miss Buchman prepared a Young People's Concert that showed the relationship between de Falla's El Sombrero de Tres Picos and the music of Spain's folk traditions, in conjunction with Del Espadín Flamenco & Spanish Dance Academy. In 2007 she wrote and performed an original introduction for Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which included a reading of Goethe’s ballad, Der Zauberlehrling, in an English translation that Miss Buchman helped to prepare. Other young people’s concerts include Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (2004), Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (2005) and an entirely original narration for Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mère l’Oye) in 2006, in collaboration with Canadian conductor, Daniel Myssyk. She has prepared education programs for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra.

Her most recent chamber music performance was a recital of art music, stories, puppetry and songs for families. It included pieces written for her to narrate and sing, as well as songs by Alec Wilder and Moondog, and featured an appearance by Jacob Barton, inventor of the new instrument, the Udderbot. Other chamber music performances include John Cage's Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs and ten selections from his 62 Mesostics re Merce Cunningham; the latter performed for the new music ensemble, Barmusic, in its opening concert (2003). She has had original music composed for her narrations by Troy Wayne, (Gorey - five stories by Edward Gorey); by percussionist Matt McClung, (Rudyard Kipling's "How the Whale Got His Throat," and "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin"); and most recently, by composer Dan Sedgwick (three well-known children’s books). In the spring of 2007, Miss Buchman narrated the world premiere of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” music by Dan Sedgwick, with the Keene Chamber Orchestra.

As a voice-over artist you can hear Miss Buchman regularly on radio, television, anime, film and industrial cd-roms. She wrote and narrated a program about the Suzuki violin repertoire for KUHF, Houston's National Public Radio and classical music station. In February 2007, she appeared in a leading role in the world premiere of the musical, A Talmud Tale.

In film, Miss Buchman recently performed blues and American songs for the documentary film, Ray Hill - Citizen Provacateur, directed by Brian Huberman. She is presently researching and recording music for his next documentary film, Alligator-Horses, about American society in the 1830’s.

For over 25 years, Miss Buchman has taught music to young people, from toddlers to doctoral students, of every social and ethnic background, across the United States, in Germany, England and Israel. She has presented teacher workshops nationwide for the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Houston Grand Opera, Project Grad, Young Audiences, the Children's Museum of Houston, the Bureau of Jewish Education, and other organizations. She has intermittently worked with the neurologist, Dr. Ron Tintner, on researching the high level of musical intuitiveness found in young children, as well as the positive effects that making music and moving to music have on the brain.

Miss Buchman has had extensive physical training in Iyengar yoga, dance, theatre, alternative healing, and horseback riding and uses all of these physical practices in her understanding of and approach to teaching and performance.

Rachel Buchman is a lecturer in music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, and Head of the Young Children's Division of the Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Program. She was invited by the former Dean Michael Hammond to design and establish the program in 2000. Using her own methods and those of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, she trains Brown Fellow graduate students to develop the intuitive musicianship of young children, and teaches children’s classes herself. Through the JUMP concert program she teaches classical musicians innovative approaches to presenting art music to children and adults, and she coaches musicians in the art of the spoken word, a skill increasingly in demand for musicians performing contemporary compositions.

Miss Buchman earned her bachelor’s degree in drama, Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude, from Vassar College. She is completing her certification in Dalcroze eurhythmics, from the Longy School of Music, studying with Lisa Parker and Anne Farber. She also studied at Carnegie Mellon, and with Dr. Hilda M. Schuster at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York. She has studied voice with Kathleen Kaun.

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