Rachel Gibbons is a cellist in Columbia, South Carolina, performing for a variety of ensembles and events. She is a cello instructor for the Suzuki Academy of Columbia and for the University of South Carolina’s Carolina Music Studios.

She obtained her Master’s in Cello Performance from the University of South Carolina where she studied with Claire Bryant. She obtained her Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance with certification in K-12 music education at the University of Iowa where she studied with Anthony Arnone. She also spent her teenage years studying with Carolyn Suda, professor at Knox and Monmouth Colleges.

In 2014, she won the Southeast Iowa Symphony’s Young Artist Competition and was a soloist for their spring concert series. She has played cello with the Southeast Iowa Symphony, Ottumwa Community Orchestra, University of Northern Iowa Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, University of Iowa Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the University of South Carolina Symphony and Opera Orchestras, Aiken Symphony, and Aiken Civic Orchestra. At the University of South Carolina, she was part of the Graduate String Quartet and performed a full quartet program each semester in addition to doing outreach performances in the community. She was a member of the Mire Quartet at the University of Iowa and participated in the University of Iowa’s 2018 Chamber Music Summer Iowa tour.

In addition to performing and teaching cello lessons, she is a passionate advocate and educator in the public schools. She herself started playing the cello at the age of 10 in the Wichita Public Schools. After she earned her Bachelor’s degree, she worked as a middle school orchestra director in the Waterloo Community School District in Iowa for three years during the global pandemic. She is currently an elementary strings teacher in Richland School District One in South Carolina.

Rachel Gibbons is a registered member of the American String Teachers Association, the South Carolina Music Educators Association, and the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She has completed her Suzuki Cello Book 1 training in June of 2024 with Abbey Hansen at the Blue Lake Suzuki Family Camp in Michigan and has completed Suzuki Cello Book 2 training with Tanya Carey through the American Suzuki Institute in July of 2024.