ABOUT

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Rachel Epperly is a musician, improviser, and performance artist based in the US and Korea. Rachel uses a wide array of mediums to create immersive performances. Her work spans solo opera, electronic music, performance costume, experimental improvisation, text, and more. Cultural studies is at the heart of Rachel's work; she investigates rigid and oppressive cultural norms and systems and asks what it means to truly transcend these systems and cultivate a more sincere relationship to our bodies, nature, our selves, and our communities.​

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Recent projects include her original solo opera SPIDERLILY, which premiered in 2023; a suit of armor made from 20,000 recycled pop tabs; a performance art installation in which Rachel held five themed, staged poses for an hour at a time; and a narrative album about pumpjacks. While her primary focus as a musician is voice, she is also a pianist and accordionist. Rachel also makes ambient music and teaches sound meditation classes. 

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Rachel is a recipient of a prestigious US Fulbright Research Grant in  Seoul, where she learned pansori performance and composition for ten months. She now studies jeongga.​ She holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and a BM in Music Composition from the University of Michigan with highest honors. Rachel has completed residencies/fellowships with  Westben, Gabriela Lena Frank Academy of Music, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Art Omi:Music.