CAST BIOS




HELEN DOWNHAM


Appearing in: Scandinavia

Helen began to learn the cello at the age of 8 in her hometown of Sutton Coldfield. She won a scholarship to study at the University of Manchester with Bernard Gregor-Smith of The Lindsays where she met the members of her string quartet, the Rivoli Quartet. After completing her undergraduate degree she went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music with Hannah Roberts, which she completed in 2004. In 2007 she also gained a Masters Degree in String Quartet Performance from the University of Sheffield. Helen has performed many concertos including Haydn D major, Saint-Saens No.1, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and most recently the Schumann. She performs extensively throughout the U.K. and abroad with her quartet and is also a busy freelance orchestral musician. She has recently been broadcast live on both BBC Radio 3 (The Verb) and Radio 4 (Easter Sunday service from Liverpool Cathedral).