Highly skilled collaborative pianist Helen Mills has performed with established musicians in the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Greece and South America in a number of venues including King’s Place, LSO St Lukes, Cadagon Hall and St George’s Bristol.
She performs regularly as an accompanist for concerts, competitions and exams, and also as a chamber musician in a number of professional duos and trios. She has performed extensively with Ystävää Piano Trio, John Bacon (Tenor) and Belgrave Trio, and is the pianist for the recently formed Trio Sivrai, a group dedicated to promoting music by women composers.
She has worked as staff accompanist at a number of institutions including Wells Cathedral School, where she worked with talented young musicians and played a major role in many of the school’s performances, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she played for weekly classes, concerts and auditions. She currently accompanies regularly at the specialist music school, Bristol Cathedral Choir School, and at Badminton School in Bristol.
Helen was an artist on Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now scheme for 5 years, performing with John Bacon (Tenor) throughout the UK to people who have limited access to live music, and has done similar work with the Concordia Foundation and Superact.
Helen’s studies include a Bachelor of Music degree at Birmingham University and Birmingham Conservatoire, where she majored in solo piano and performed frequently as a collaborative pianist. As a postgraduate, Helen won a scholarship to study Piano Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for two years and graduated with distinction from the Performance Masters programme. During her time there she studied with Andrew West, Pamela Lidiard and Charles Owen, and received coaching from renowned musicians including Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Gordon Back, and Iain Burnside. She participated in many recitals and projects including Iain Burnside’s production Childsplay, which received a glowing review from Opera Magazine, and was awarded the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize by Roger Vignoles for her performance in Sarah Walker’s ‘Creative Voices’ recital. Following her time at the Guildhall, in 2009 Helen completed Udo Reinemann’s monthly International Lied Masterclasses at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels and was consequently invited to perform at the Festival des Heures Romantiques in France for the following two summers.
Helen Mills is a piano teacher at Bristol Cathedral Choir School, Badminton School, Clifton High School and at her private teaching practice in Bristol.
