Teaching is a central focus for Rachel Nelson, with many years experience conducting school residencies in Minnesota and North Carolina through the Mountain Arts roster, the Wake Country Education roster, and the North Carolina Resident Artist and Touring roster. Rachel is currently on both the COMPAS Global Arts and WAITS rosters, as well as in the Minnesota Folk Artists Directory. Several of her many residency topics include: Music of Appalachia, Stringband camps, and Songwriting.

As a performer, Rachel Nelson is a songwriter and folk musician whose feet have been planted firmly in the tradition of live performance for over twenty years. She is passionate about live performance, weaving folk songs, stories, and poems into warm, spontaneous musical fun. Using fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and maybe a washtub bass, she mixes traditional Appalachian and Celtic music with her own original songs, which range from traditional simplicity to swing, blues, and jazz. Her songs are showcased in her new CD, “Change is a Thousand Hearts,” exploring topics from peace and community to global economics and deep ecology. Rachel is a 2005 Officer of the Young Fiddler’s Association.