HELEN CRAYFORD

Helen Crayford, a music graduate of Cambridge University, undertook post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music, London, winning a French Government Scholarship to study privately with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She became the principal keyboard player with the Britten Sinfonia, performing as soloist in Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind, and Britten’s Young Apollo and also featured in the Promenade Concert at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, built around Les Six, including Poulenc’s Sextet. She formed the Crayford Duo with her violinist sister, Marcia, travelling to Princeton University as guest lecturers, and was also invited to appear in the Caribbean and various American colleges with flautist Nancy Ruffer. Other enterprises include master-classes for the National Youth Orchestra and English National Opera. Her recordings include English music for flute, oboe and piano, and  she is in demand by the BBC, as keyboard player in the Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers. Her virtuoso one-woman show, Rags to Riches, featuring the music of ragtime, has taken her to the Edinburgh Festival, Italy and New York.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com