Rachel Shafran, Development Manager
What brings you to the Sydney Symphony?
The performing arts have always been a big part of my life. I played in my school's orchestra and band (though not very well), sang in my high school choir, was bitten by the musical theatre bug, and trained quite seriously as a ballet dancer, so when I was job hunting after moving to Sydney, I absolutely knew where I wanted to be. After refreshing the Sydney Symphony's 'work with us' page countless times, I was thrilled to see the Development Team was hiring. It's been amazing to get to know the Orchestra and the incredible SSO community (and being able to see the Opera House from my desk isn't bad, either).
When did you realise you had become Australian?
I was lucky enough to find myself chatting with Anna Lapwood over Tim Tams (happy to confirm she is every bit as lovely as you would expect), and I used the phrase "This is going straight in the pool room." Anna had apparently heard this a few times since arriving but wasn't sure what it meant. I'm not sure I'll ever feel more Australian than I did explaining The Castle backstage at the Sydney Opera House to someone eating a Tim Tam.
Tell us about your most impactful musical moment.
My grandma was a professional singer and, for all her decades performing, we only have one recording of her as The Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel. Listening to that with my family might be the most magical of my musical experiences.
What’s something people might not know about you?
I majored in Russian as an undergrad and my first job out of college was actually as an interpreter for a summer program with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. All of the teachers came from the Bolshoi, but the students were mostly American, so I would sit in classes and translate. While my conversational Russian has definitely faded, I'm pretty fluent in ballet Russian, a skill I fear has incredibly limited uses.