Rachel Segman
Musical Director
de Merc is delighted to welcome Rachel Segman as its new Musical Director for the 2026–27 season. We are excited to begin a new chapter in the choir’s history under her direction.
Rachel Segman is a London-based conductor and singer. At the age of 11, she joined the prestigious Ankor Choir, the children’s choir for the Israel Philharmonic. She attended secondary school at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and trained as a soprano, receiving top marks in her graduation recital. Aged 17, Rachel won first place in the international competition ‘Music of the World’ in Jerusalem and was a recipient of the competitive America Israel Culture Foundation grant for 2018–2020.
In 2018, she began her BMus in Choral Conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and began singing with professional groups in Jerusalem. Rachel was also appointed Assistant Director of the Jerusalem Chamber Choir, assisting in choral preparation for projects with the Israel Philharmonic and the Jerusalem and Haifa Symphony Orchestras.
In 2021, Rachel spent a term at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, where she sang for their Chamber Choir and developed fluency in German, adding to her other languages: English, French, Arabic and Hebrew.
Rachel is the founder and first Artistic Director of the Jerusalem Vocal Consort, the first professional early music vocal ensemble in Israel. She also helped to create Concert.a, an initiative celebrating women in music through concerts, festivals, commissions and outreach projects. She directed youth choirs and worked as a singing teacher.
In 2023, Rachel moved to the United States to pursue her MMus in Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music. During this time, she served as Choir Director of the University Church in Yale, was a Graduate Teaching Assistant of analysis and musicianship and sang for the world-renowned Yale Schola Cantorum. She was also Director of Music for the Yale Slifka Center Reform High Holidays as well as the New Haven chapter of HaZamir, the International Jewish Youth Choir.
In 2025, she relocated to the UK to pursue her MPhil in Music at the University of Cambridge, researching German Baroque vocal repertoire. During her time there, she worked as a Lay Clerk at Gonville & Caius College Choir and sang in the Cambridge Early Music Consort. She also worked as Music Director of The Orlando Singers chamber choir and of Kol Echad, The Jewish Choir in Cambridge.
She is now the Choir Director for The Collaboration Choir North London and a Conducting Fellow at the International Jewish Choral Conductors Institute for 2026–2028, while balancing a multifaceted freelance career as a singer, music educator and conductor.