Helen Collyer ~ Pianist

Helen is much in demand throughout Europe as a piano accompanist, repetiteur and vocal coach. 

As freelance repetiteur and coach she is engaged by the Salzburger Osterfestspiele, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Baden Baden Festspiele, Komische Oper Berlin, Den Norske Opera, and English National Opera among others, working with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski (Die Meistersinger, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Rake's Progress, Peter Grimes), Sir Simon Rattle (Carmen, Der Rosenkavalier, Pelleas et Melisande, Tristan und Isolde), Paul Daniel (L'Enfant et les Sortileges, Der Zwerg) and Sir Andrew Davis (Billy Budd, The Rake's Progress).

Other recent engagements as repetiteur and orchestral pianist include Berlioz' Romeo et Juliette for the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Tughan Sokhiev at the Berlin Philarmonie, the late Peter Maxwell Davies'  The Two Fiddlers with Sir Simon Rattle, The Rape of Lucretia with Leo Hussein for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and The Rake's Progress with Sir Andrew Davis at the Edinburgh Festival.

As piano accompanist she has performed at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, the Linbury Studio (ROH), in Bayreuth, at Palais Garnier and La Bastille. 

As orchestral pianist Helen can be heard in Glyndebourne's recordings of Ariadne auf Naxos, The Rape of Lucretia, and The Cunning Little Vixen, and as harpsichordist in the Grammy nominated recording of The Rake's Progress with Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent performances include Britten's War Requiem with Ralf Sochaczewsky and the Konzerthaus Orchester in Berlin, and as pianist in Martinu's Double Concerto for Two String Orchestrase, Piano and Timpani, on a tour of France and Italy with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Helen enjoys coaching privately, and holds a guest-professorship at the UdK in Berlin. She is often engaged as an English language coach (Händel's Messiah at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées,  Billy Budd at the Michailovsky Theatre, St.Petersburg, Billy Budd and Candide at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, and for RIAS Kammerchor). She is able to offer language coaching in french, german and italian, and has a working knowledge of Czech, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish. 

Helen has recently been elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Recent engagements include Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no.3 with the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Berlin in the Berliner Philharmonie, the world premiere of Brett Dean's Hamlet in Glyndebourne, Wozzeck at the Salzburg Festspiele with Vladimir Jurowski and Suor Angelica with Kirill Petrenko at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Future engagements include further recitals with the male soprano Samuel Mariño and with the bass Matthew Rose, and a series of Stravinsky operas with Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB.