Helen Ayres

About

Helen Ayres is a Doctoral graduate of the University of Melbourne and current violin teacher at the Open Music Academy, University of Adelaide.

She is a founding member of Seraphim trio, resident leader of the Adelaide Hills Chamber Players Hendrickson Strings ensemble and has appeared as guest leader with numerous Australian ensembles.

As a founding member of Seraphim, Helen has commissioned new works by Brett Dean, James Ledger and Jakob Jankowski and has performed at various Australian festivals with musicians Paul Kelly, Lucinda Collins, Konstantin Shamray and Elizabeth Layton. Helen’s chamber music concerts are regularly broadcast on ABC and MBS-FM radio stations and she has also presented for Radio 5MBS-FM in Adelaide. In 2019, Seraphim’s Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds with Paul Kelly, James Ledger, and Alice Keath won the ARIA award for Best Classical Album. Other albums include Trio Through Time, The Trout, Beethoven Piano Trios and most recently Women in Music.

Helen held a permanent position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has since performed in England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and China with the BBC Scottish Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Helen is passionate about increasing performance opportunities for young Australian musicians. To this end she is appears on the board of Recitals Australia and convenes the String and Ensemble Divisions of the Adelaide Eisteddfod Society.