Faculty Recital: Rachel Childers, French Horn, Christopher Elchico, Clarinet, and Jiayan Sun, Piano

Artist(s)

Christopher Elchico, clarinet
Rachel Childers, French horn
Jiayan Sun, piano

Christopher Elchico

Clarinetist Christopher Elchico joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as second clarinet in March 2022. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Kansas City Symphony, and New World Symphony. His principal teachers were Burt Hara, associate principal clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and James Campbell, professor emeritus of clarinet at Jacobs School of Music Indiana University, where Elchico completed a dual master’s degree in clarinet and classical saxophone performance. Elchico is a Buffet Group USA and Vandoren Performing Artist.

Rachel Childers

Michigan native Rachel Childers has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2011. As Second Horn of the BSO, she occupies the John P. II and Nancy S. Eustis chair. She is notably the first female member of the Boston Symphony brass section. Prior to moving to Boston, Ms. Childers was the Acting Assistant Principal/Utility Horn of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She also held several positions in orchestras throughout California, affectionately referred to as the Freeway Philharmonic. Rachel holds the distinction of being in the first class of admitted horn players to the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where she studied with David Jolley and David Krehbiel. Rachel received her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Søren Hermansson. During her time at U of M, she enjoyed performing with both the Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Band, where she began her college career as Horn 4B under director H. Robert Reynolds.

Ms. Childers is devoted to education initiatives in her community. Her interest in this work began when she was a teaching artist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she partnered with underserved schools in the Los Angeles area. She continues this line of work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Education Department. She is particularly proud of her involvement in the implementation of the “BSO In Residence” project — an initiative directed at her adopted community of Jamaica Plain, MA. Childers also develops and performs programs for the BSO’s “Concerts for Very Young People” at local libraries and children’s museums.

While working towards her Artist Diploma at the Colburn School, Rachel was a researcher in the Academic Development and Institutional Research Department at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, CA. Initially a data-entry clerk, Ms. Childers discovered a talent for statistical research and analysis. During her 4 years at FIDM, she was promoted into what could have been a promising career. This interest in data analysis continues in Boston, where she serves on the supervisory committee of the Symphony Credit Union and on the Pension Board of the BSO, where she digs deep into quarterly reports.

Currently on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music, Rachel has also taught at Boston University and has presented masterclasses at the Manhattan School, Mannes School of Music, the University of Michigan, Colburn School, and Boston Conservatory. In 2014, she was a featured artist at the Southeast Horn Workshop at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a visiting artist at the University of Montana. Ms. Childers has taught at the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Bar Harbor Brass Week. She and her husband Sam, a bassoonist, have two lovely children with great pitch and volume.

Praised by the New York Times for his “revelatory” performances, and by the Toronto Star for his “technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing,” pianist Jiayan Sun has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. He has collaborated with prominent conductors, such as Sir Mark Elder, Michail Jurowski, Stefan Sanderling, Leon Fleisher, David Hayes, Thomas Crawford, Daejin Kim, Kerry Stratton, and Xincao Li. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, China Central Television and classical music radio stations in North America. He has performed at and participated in the Verbier Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and PianoTexas. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff’s “Building Bridges” project.

Sun has been awarded prizes at many of the major international piano competitions, including third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, second prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, fourth prize and the audience prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, and first prize at the inaugural CCC Toronto International Piano Competition. Playing early keyboard instruments and studying historical performance practice have played a significant role in Sun’s musical activities, with critically acclaimed appearances with the American Classical Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.

Hailing from Yantai, China, he received bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor of musical arts degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Stephen Hough. His other mentors include pianists Malcolm Bilson, Richard Goode, and Robert Levin, and harpsichordist Lionel Party. His devotion to the art of composition led him to study with the composer Philip Lasser. As the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in piano at Smith College, he presented Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas in chronological order, in addition to a yearlong series devoted to the music of Schubert and Chopin.