Rachel Fuller - Musical Director
Rachel Fuller ARAM, M.Mus (RAM) built her career as a collaborative pianist in London between 1997 and 2015 and currently works part time at the University of Auckland as a Professional Teaching Fellow in Collaborative Piano and Vocal Coaching.
Originally from Christchurch, Rachel studied with Rosemary Stott and Dierdre Irons (University of Canterbury) before completing her training at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Michael Dussek and Tatiana Sarkissova. She also studied cello with Alexander Ivashkin (University of Canterbury) and was a member of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra during her training.
Rachel has performed as a collaborative pianist in leading venues such as The Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the London Coliseum and St John’s Smith Square. Rachel has accompanied leading international singers in concert including tenors Keith Lewis and Simon O’Neill, baritone Jeffrey Black, dramatic soprano Turid Karlsen and mezzo sopranos Yvonne Fontane and Catrin Johnsson. She has worked as vocal accompanist in the teaching studios of internationally renowned artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Yvonne Kenny, Keith Lewis and the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson. As recitalist she has performed in France, Norway, Sweden, Italy and throughout Europe.
Rachel worked as an audition accompanist for The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as a répétiteur, vocal coach and diction coach for contemporary opera productions in the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House. She has also worked with leading British opera companies including: Diva Opera; Opera Della Luna; London Opera Players; Opera East; and London Festival Opera with repertoire including: operas by Mozart, La Fille du Regiment, The Barber of Seville, L’Italiana in Algeri, La Boheme, Fidelio, Tosca and Turandot.
Connections to Scandinavia led her to work as a répétiteur, vocal coach and chorus coach for operatic productions as well as accompanist for opera gala performances and recitals. For Opera i Kristiansund she was central to the success of their productions of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (2014/2015) and Giuseppe Scarlatti’s opera Dove è amore è gelosia (2013/2014) where she also provided continuo(harpsichord) for the performances.
Further work in Norway includes Turandot for Opera Nordfjord (March 2014). In 2011 she became the Musical Director of Åmot Opera Gard’s Opera Festival in Bygstad, Norway. Her first production there of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2011 was favourably received by critics and public alike. In August of 2012 she directed from the harpsichord an international cast of singers and instrumentalists in performances of Händel’s opera Orlando.
Rachel has performed chamber music repertoire extensively and has made several tours for Chamber Music New Zealand. Since her return to New Zealand, Rachel has been in demand as a chamber musician and has performed with violinists Leo Phillips, Andrew Beer, violist Serenity Thurlow and cellists Ramon Jaffé and Edith Salzman as well as flutist Luca Manghi, oboist Celia Craig and bassoonist Selena Orwin. She has performed extensively as pianist and harpsichordist at the Akaroa Festival and for the Kristiansund chamber music festival in Norway as well as harpsichordist and répétiteur for the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra.
In London Rachel taught piano at all levels at leading London schools – St. Pauls’ Boys School, Latymer Upper School and Richmond-Upon-Thames-College. In her private studio she has taught piano and cello for over 20 years. Rachel worked for Morley College on their Opera Programme as a vocal coach, répétiteur and accompanist. She has worked as an accompanist and vocal coach for the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation in the UK and has continued her work for the Foundation in New Zealand coaching singers on their young artist programme.
For the New Zealand Singing School Rachel has been a guest tutor since 2007 and in 2017 was made Principal of Faculty and Curriculum and led the school together with Catrin Johnsson and Judy Bellingham in January 2019. She also coordinated and taught the trainee accompanist programme.
For New Zealand Opera Rachel has worked as a répétiteur with the chorus for L’Elisir d’Amore (2018) and Semele (2020); as accompanist and music director she toured with the 2018 Emerging Artists for the school’s production of L’Elisir d’Amore; as vocal coach she has worked with the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Studio Artists 2019/2020/2021. She acted as surtitle operator for the productions of the Magic Flute (2016, 2018) and Bonefeeder (2017), The Barber of Seville (2019)as well as Ihitai ‘Avei’a/Star Navigator and Le Nozze di Figaro (2021). In 2020, Rachel acted as répétiteur and performer for the very successful tour of Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies.
Rachel is passionate about helping pianists in New Zealand develop skills as collaborative pianists. She initiated the ‘Collaborative Pianists of New Zealand’ Facebook page to support NZ pianists, she teaches collaborative piano from undergraduate to Masters level at the University of Auckland and in July 2019 presented the Choral Accompanists Programme for Choral Connect. She regularly presents for organisations such as IRMTNZ on developments in collaborative piano training and shares knowledge through her presentation ‘Not just an accompanist’.