Helen first studied piano at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Hobart in the 1980s. After a career change and raising a family, she returned there to study composition, graduating with a Bachelor of Music with Honours in 2020.
During this same year Helen was selected by the Flinders String Quartet to participate in the 2020 Flinders Composer Development Program with her work, The Hedberg, a String Quartet in Three Movements, and received a residency at All That We Are, Sandford.
Helen participated in the Recorder Lift Off educational resource during 2020, her three pieces - Hobart Hustle, Stargazing and Chasing Fireflies - were performed and recorded using players from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. She also wrote for L’Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine of the Conservatoire de Musique de Rimouski, in Quebec, Canada, for the “Le Piano Rue” concert in January 2021, then a new work for their concert in January 2023. Both pieces were performed in a live-stream event.
Helen was a finalist in the 2021 Australian Women’s Wind Band Composition Award for her work Summer Rains, recorded in September 2022 with the Queensland Wind Orchestra. In July 2022 she received a commission to write a piece for the 2022 Ossa Prize winners. Her composition, The Beaumaris Variations, for french horn and keyboard percussion, was part of a concert program that performed at several venues throughout Tasmania. Deslacs Dawn, for Wind Orchestra, was first composed for brass octet and performed by members of the Hobart Wind Symphony in 2021 (World Premier), then as a piece orchestrated for full wind orchestra and performed by the Grainger Wind Symphony in August of 2023.
Helen continues to compose her music while living in Bellerive near Hobart.
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Federation Concert Hall, 1 Davey Street,
Nipaluna / Hobart,
Lutruwita / TAS 7000, Australia
GPO Box 1450 Nipaluna / Hobart,
Lutruwita / TAS 7001, Australia
TSO Box Office
10am–4pm Monday to Friday
1800 001 190 — boxoffice@tso.com.au
Located in the Hotel Grand Chancellor foyer
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The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the traditional owners and continuing custodians of lutruwita / Tasmania. We pay respect to the Aboriginal community today, and to its Elders past and present. We recognise a history of truth, which acknowledges the impacts of colonisation upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and stand for a future that profoundly respects their stories, culture, language and history.
