Dr. Rachel Hockenberry

Biography

Dr. Rachel Hockenberry is the Associate Professor of Horn at Illinois State University. Since moving to Illinois in 2018, she has performed with the Illinois, Peoria, Quad Cities, Dubuque, and Champaign-Urbana symphonies, and the Heartland Festival Orchestra. She has also performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Orchestra Kentucky, Stiletto Brass Quintet, and numerous other ensembles. Additionally, she has shared the stage or the recording studio with Billy Idol, Pete Townshend, and Jon Batiste, and has recorded for television series. She is principal horn of the Queen City Opera in Cincinnati, where in October of 2015 she had the distinct pleasure of performing the infamous “Long Call” from Act II of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried.

Before transitioning to Illinois State, Dr. Hockenberry was the horn professor at Pasadena City College and Los Angeles City College, and kept a large private studio of young hornists throughout Los Angeles County who successfully auditioned into the California All State and All Southern Bands and the Colburn Youth Orchestra. She incorporates elements of El Sistema - a music education philosophy based on the belief that music is a transformative and fundamental human right for all people - into every aspect of her teaching career. Dr. Hockenberry is a graduate of the Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory of Music, and has completed residencies with El Sistema programs in Venezuela and across the United States.

A Virginia native, Dr. Hockenberry received her bachelors degree in horn performance from James Madison University. She earned her masters and doctoral degrees in horn performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she also completed cognate studies in arts administration. Primary teachers include Randy Gardner, Tom Sherwood, Liz Freimuth, Duane Dugger and Abigail Pack, with additional instruction from David Ohanian and Roger Kaza.