UK born violinist Helen Bower is a bold, adventurous and versatile musician with a passion for collaboration. Since relocating from London to Melbourne in 2012, Helen has forged a prominent name for herself in both the classical and contemporary Australian music scenes, with performances at venues such as Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne State Theatre, The Forum and La Mama Theatre, and for festivals including Melbourne Festival, Melbourne
Fringe Festival and WHITE NIGHT.

Helen trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, studying with Ann Hooley (Archaeus Quartet) and upon graduation was awarded the Vivian Prindl Outreach Prize for her music/dance collaboration In the Loop. Whilst studying, she worked closely with Trinity composers to perform and commission new works, before branching out to produce inter-disciplinary projects with artists in fields as diverse as film, dance, spoken word, poetry, textiles, sculpture and graffiti. During her time in London, Helen also worked regularly with bands and electronic artists as both a violinist and backing vocalist.

Since relocating to Melbourne in 2012, Helen’s main creative focus has been exploring the use of live electronic looping equipment within the context of contemporary classical music. Commissioning new works for violin and loop station, Helen has produced, performed and toured two shows, Through the Looping Glass and Lost in the Looping Glass in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

With a busy freelance career based in Melbourne, Helen currently performs with improvised, contemporary art-music group Ensemble Density, the Four Seasons String Quartet and is a regular soloist and ensemble player at St Michael’s Uniting Church. She has recently worked for Taylor Mac (24-Decade History of Popular Music at Melbourne Festival, 2017), Mick Harvey (Mick Harvey & the Intoxicated Men, 2018), OPIUO (OPIUO with the Syzygy Orchestra, 2018) and toured China as a chamber musician and orchestral player for Australian International Productions.

Aside from her musical endeavours, Helen is passionate about supporting community arts programs. She spent a year as President of the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra during which time she helped to guide the orchestra through a highly successful year, with significant increase in concert attendance and orchestral membership. Previous roles in the UK include administrative assistant for the Electric Voice Theatre and workshop assistant for The Rapper’s Opera, a song-writing project run by prison arts company Escape Artists.