Rachel Atkinson is the cellist of the Fidelio Quartet and the Head of the Music Academy at Camberwell Grammar School. In 2019 the Fidelio Quartet completed the three year Melbourne Beethoven Quartet Cycle to great critical acclaim. Rachel has performed with the Melbourne Symphony for 25 years, regularly recorded for the ABC and taught at University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts.
She studied cello with Georg Pedersen at the Sydney Conservatorium and with David Strange, Lynn Harrell and with members of the Amadeus Quartet at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She continued her studies with William Pleeth with a QEII Arts Council Grant.
She has given the premieres of many contemporary works and has appeared as solo recitalist and chamber musician in New Zealand, Britain, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Canada, Israel and Malaysia. In the mid nineties, Rachel was the cellist of Trio Melbourne.
From 2008 – 2012, Rachel was the Artistic Director of Nefes Ensemble, performers of music from the Baroque and Classical periods of the Ottoman Court. The ensemble appeared at the Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals, and broadcast for ABC Classic FM. She was also Musical Director of a collaboration with the Victorian Opera, performing her arrangement of The Play of Daniel for Ottoman instrumentation.