Helen took up the violin at the age of three, and the viola at seventeen. Having studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where she was an Instrumental and Choral Scholar, she is now an Associate Professor at Durham University. At Cambridge, Helen began to specialise in period performance, studying with Margaret Faultless, performing regularly with ensembles such as Cambridge University Collegium Musicum and Marnaves Baroque Orchestra, and participating in masterclasses and workshops with (among others) Richard Egarr, Jane Rogers, Steven Isserlis, and Lars Erik Mortensen. Currently, she continues to work professionally with ensembles including Devon Baroque, Oxford Bach Soloists, Newcastle Baroque, and St. John's Sinfonia, and has performed under the direction of Rachel Podger, Bojan Čičić, and Pavlo Beznosiuk, as well as leading ensembles including the Bishop's Consort and the Orchestra of the Age of Reason, with whom she has appeared as a concerto soloist at a sell-out Bach extravaganza in Ely Cathedral. She has also participated in side-by-side schemes with the Academy of Ancient Music, and is a former award-holder of the European Union Baroque Orchestra Development Trust. Highlights as a chamber musician and recitalist include the Fitzwilliam Museum Promenade Concert Series, the Cambridge Music Festival, and the Spitalfields Festival (this last to critical acclaim by The Daily Telegraph).
