Helen was born in Newport, South Wales and studied viola with Walter Gerhardt. She joined the BBC Training Orchestra in Bristol and was given her first post with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the age of nineteen and has now returned as an associate member. She then became principal viola of the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra and the first principal viola of the newly formed ESO in 1980.

Her career has taken her to Europe and the USA with Yehudi Menuhin, to Japan with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and to many international chamber music festivals as violist with the Bochmann String Quartet. She has given many performances of solo viola works including; Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, Schnittke’s Monologue,Berlioz’s Harold in Italy and Britten’s Lachrymae. As a member of the Bochmann String Quartet she has also enjoyed recording and performing much of the great chamber music repertoire.