Rachel Becker

Dr. Rachel Becker is Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Northern Colorado. Her research focuses on issues of genre, virtuosity, gender, popularity, and woodwind development. Her current projects focus on current societal resonances of historical musical criticism – including in the gendering of musical instruments and of genres in contemporary Western society – and on the materiality of musical instruments. As an oboist, she currently performs in the US and in Europe, both in chamber and solo recitals and with ensembles such as the Colorado Bach Ensemble, the Boulder Symphony, and the Boise Phil. She is a Howarth Artist, playing on a Howarth XM oboe and a Howarth XL English horn. Her first book, Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments, was published by Routledge in 2024.