Teachers and Staff | Rachel Mills

Rachel Mills joined the ROCmusic faculty in January 2019 as lead cello teaching artist and stepped into the role of Executive and Artistic Director in July 2022. Previously, Mills served as a secondary lesson instructor at Oberlin College, as well as an Oberlin College String Prep Department teacher for community students in the Oberlin, Ohio area. She has also held positions at the Roberts Community Music School through Roberts Wesleyan College, The Music Store, Inc., and the Hochstein School of Music. Mills maintains a small studio of private cello students.

Mills is passionate about equal access to high level music education. She has thrice traveled to Panama to perform and teach with Cuarteto Girasol through the national concert association there. In 2019 and 2020 she was invited to perform and teach at the SA’ Oaxaca Strings International Music Festival in Mexico.

Mills received a bachelor degree in cello performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She continued higher education studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands where she was a recipient of a Holland Scholarship and an Excellence Scholarship. A native of Rochester, NY, Mills grew up through the Hochstein School of Music’s honors certificate program. She has been a featured soloist with the Hochstein Youth, Penfield, and Genesee Symphony Orchestras, as well as performed on the “Live from Hochstein” radio show and Hochstein’s Spotlight on Faculty recital series.