Helen Vollam – Trombone
Helen is Principal Trombone of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and is also a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Bones Apart Trombone Quartet. She enjoys a busy and varied career combining orchestral playing, chamber music, solo work and teaching. Helen is the first woman to be appointed principal trombone of a London orchestra.
She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and after graduating won the Woodwind & Brass Award and Philip Jones Memorial Brass Prize in the final of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, and was the first trombone player to reach the competition’s final.
In 2019 Helen premiered Gavin Higgins’ new trombone concerto ‘Book of Miracles’, written specially for her, with the BBCSO at the Barbican in London. In 2022 Helen was awarded ‘Player of the Year’ by the British Trombone Society.
Helen has played on many film soundtracks, including Harry Potter, Inception, Star Wars – The Attack of the Clones, Iron Man 2, Final Fantasy, The Ides of March, Miss Potter, Brave, The Lost King and No Time To Die.
Elizabeth Burley – Piano
Elizabeth Burley won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. She enjoys a varied career and is much in demand particularly as a chamber musician and orchestral pianist. She has given concerts throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and North America with many leading soloists including Hakan Hardenberger, Michael Collins, Isabelle van Keulen, Robert Cohen
and Philippe Graffin.
She has made numerous chamber music recordings, most recently a disc of piano duets with Kathryn Stott.
As an orchestral pianist Elizabeth performs regularly in concerts, tours and recordings with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra. In this work she has collaborated with many of the 20th and 21st Century’s leading composers including Lutoslawski, Carter, Boulez, Berio, Knussen, Ades and Adams.
In the 2004 Proms season she made her debut as a solo artist in a performance of Colin MacPhee’s Tabuh-tabulan with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Elizabeth has broadcast regularly on BBC radio and television and is currently official accompanist of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition.
The concert is free to attend but donations are kindly received. No booking required.