Rachev becomes the second Bulgarian on the Philadelphia Orchestra's conducting staff: he joins Associate Conductor Rossen Milanov, whose career both in Philadelphia and as a guest conductor has been burgeoning in recent seasons.

Born and raised in the town of Shumen, Rachev studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Bulgarian State Musical Academy in Sofia. He came to the U.S. in 1998 to accept a scholarship for graduate study with Gustav Meier at at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, from which he received a master's degree in 2000.

In 2001 Rachev was a semifinalist in the inaugural Maazel-Vilar International Conductors' Competition, and in 2002-2003 he was the first-ever conducting fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami, where he studied with Michael Tilson Thomas. He has also worked with David Zinman at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C.