Alumni Awards: Hall of Fame

2024 Winners

Rachel Childers (BM ’03, MM ’06, horn)

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 the first female member of the Boston Symphony brass section. Prior to moving to Boston, 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. Childers holds the distinction of being in the first class of horn players admitted to the Colburn School, in Los Angeles, where she studied with David Jolley and David Krehbiel. Childers received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Søren Hermansson. During her time at U-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.

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 was 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, Massachusetts. 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, Childers was a researcher in the Academic Development and Institutional Research Department at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Initially a data-entry clerk, Childers discovered a talent for statistical research and analysis. This interest in data continues in Boston, where she serves on the supervisory committee of the Symphony Credit Union and is a member director of the pension board of the BSO. Childers is currently on faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she is also chair of winds, brass & percussion chamber music. During the summers, she teaches at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Tanglewood Music Center, and Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She and her husband Sam, a bassoonist, have two lovely children and one loud cat.

Daniel Bernard Roumain (MM ’95, DMA ’00, composition)

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific and collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga, as well as with institutions including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Sydney Opera House. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions from venerable artists and institutions worldwide.

Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic, urban, and African American musical influences, DBR is a composer of solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and he has composed an array of film, theatre, and dance scores. He has composed music for the acclaimed film Ailey (Sundance official selection), released and appeared on 30 album recordings, and published over 300 works.

An avid arts industry leader, DBR is the first artistic ambassador with Firstworks; the first artist activist-in-residence at Longy School of Music; and the first resident artistic catalyst with the New Jersey Symphony. He serves as a board member for the League of American Orchestras and is a voting member for the Recording Academy, which bestows the Grammy Awards.

DBR earned his doctorate in music composition from the University of Michigan and is currently a tenured institute professor at Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.