About Rachel Felicia Calvert

Rachel grew up with music in her house - her mom was also a Suzuki Violin Teacher! Rachel started taking violin lessons from her mother’s teaching partner at the age of four. She studied with Suzuki teachers Ann Brown, Susan Raguse, Ann Kearney-Looman, Randi Hellman, and Nancy Lokken in private and group lessons.

While a student at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, Rachel studied with Professor Wen-Lei Gu and performed with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, the Improvisation Group of Lawrence University, and various small ensembles including a jazz string quartet and a tango trio. As a non-conservatory student, she received the Ensemble Award which allowed her to study with the conservatory while pursuing a B.A. in English, a minor in Spanish, and a secondary education Language Arts teaching certification.

Rachel unexpectedly switched career paths from the public education and nonprofits world to music as she quickly made a name for herself in the midwestern Americana scene. Her band Barbaro won the John Hartford Memorial Band Contest (2018), the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Association Band Contest at Minnesota State Fair (2018), and were selected musicians for the U.S. State Department’s American Music Abroad program in 2023. During their time in AMA, they toured Qatar, Türkiye, and Bulgaria where they both performed and facilitated educational music workshops. Rachel recorded three albums with Barbaro, including About the Winter, engineered and produced by GRAMMY-winner Brian Joseph.

As a bandmember and individual musician, Rachel has been featured in Star Tribune, Strings Magazine, The Bluegrass Situation, WNCY, and The Current.

Rachel has sung and played fiddle/violin on dozens of recording projects, and is a founding member of Triple Fiddle, Said in Stone, and Uncle Kenny. She is the violin and music instructor at Zen Montessori Preschool.