Rachel Wittrig

Rachel Wittrig began studying the violin at the age of 3. Her teachers include Janis Wittrig, Gerardo Ribeiro, Stefan Milenkovich and Burton Kaplan. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied violin with Stefan Milenkovich and chamber music with the Pacifica Quartet. Rachel earned an Artist’s Diploma in Violin Performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with Burton Kaplan.

After graduating from Queens College, Rachel performed and taught classical, jazz and folk music throughout the NY Metropolitan Area. From 2012-2013 she worked as an early childhood music teacher on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with “Hands On! A Musical Experience”. In 2013, she joined the staff of Nest+M, a public school for gifted children on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she taught private and group violin lessons. Since 2015, she has taught from her home studio in the Chicago Metropolitan Area and as a substitute teacher for the Western Springs School of Talent Education. 

Rachel enjoys performing in a wide range of styles and venues apart from her classical training. Most recently, she was a guest artist at the JAZZMI Milan Festival in November of 2018. She has arranged violin for and recorded albums with indie and rock bands Elsinore, Grandkids, Pulsar47 and Mordechai In The Mirror.