Mag.^a phil. Rachel Olney MA (Cant.), BA – Linguist
Lecturer in German and English for singers
olney-r@mdw.ac.at

Rachel Olney, an Englishwoman born in France, studied languages and linguistics at the universities of Cambridge (1996–2000) and Vienna (2001–2004) as well as theology at Oak Hill College London (2006–2009), graduating with honours in all subjects. She is a certified trainer for "German as a foreign language" (University of Vienna, 2004) and for "English as a foreign language" (International House, London, 2009).

As a linguist and language trainer, she is passionate about analysing and using languages and teaching them as effectively as possible. She has extensive teaching experience. As a freelance language trainer in Vienna (2004–2006), she taught English and German through Linguista, Pro Active English and the German Academy at companies such as Bayer and Metround, where she gave private lessons to adults and children. As an assistant teacher at two secondary schools in Styria (Knittelfeld and Seckau, 1998–1999), she taught English as well as summer courses in Austria, Moldova and Hungary (2004, 2005, 2006, 2011). She gave numerous private lessons in Latin, French, English and German. She developed special courses, such as "German as a Foreign Language for theology student" (2005) and a course on English pronunciation for a twelve-year-old girl with hearing impairment (1998–1999).

Rachel is also at home in the world of classical music – as an artist and as a manager. She received violin lessons from Howard Davis at the Royal Academy of Music in London, among others. In 2000, she received a diploma in concert violin from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She completed masterclasses with the renowned Endellion String Quartet as part of a music scholarship from the University of Cambridge. She has taught violin, piano and recorder. Since 2012, she has been the arts and culture consultant for Operation Mobilisation Austria and founded the Crescendo Austria Orchestra in 2012. She is concertmaster of the University of Vienna Orchestra and gave chamber music performances (violin) in Portugal and Great Britain as well as in various cities in Austria in 2013. In 2013, she played orchestra concerts with the All Souls Orchestra in France, and at the Crescendo Summer Institute in Sárospatak, Hungary, she played in the orchestra for Mozart's Don Giovanni. Since October 2013, she has been a "German as a foreign language" trainer for singers at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She loves combining her passions for languages, music and people in this role.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)-14.11.2025