Helen Vollam

Helen Vollam (born 1974) is Principal Trombone for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, appointed in 2004 as the first woman to be appointed principal trombone in a London orchestra, and the first in a UK orchestra since Maisie Ringham of the Halle Orchestra in the last century. She joined the trombone quartet Bones Apart in 2007 and also plays with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Balsom Ensemble.

Helen studied with Eric Crees, Simon Wills, Peter Gane, John Kenny and Sue Addison at the Guildhall School of Music from 1992 to 1997. Prior to this she studied with Denis Wick, Willi Watson and Anne Higgs.

In 1995 she won the bronze medal in the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Music Scholarship competition for her performance of the Gordon Jacob Trombone Concerto with the LSO.

She was a brass finalist in the 1992 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She's also been a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, 2nd Essex Youth Orchestra and the Cambridge Youth Concert Band.

She won the Brass Award and the Philip Jones Memorial Prize in the 2003 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, performing in the final at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

She has also appeared on many film soundtracks, including Star Wars-The Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Last King of Scotland, Miss Potter, Fred Claus and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She often appears as a guest principal with the London orchestras, has given classes and examined at the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music and the London College of Music, and has adjudicated for the BBC Young Musician of the Year competiton.

She arranges music for Bones Apart, and has other brass arrangements published by BrassWorks and Denis Wick Publishing.