Rachael & Helena perform on Flute, Viola & Harp

Programme - TBC

Rachel Jeffers studied flute at the Royal Academy of Music, with William Bennett and Sebastian Bell. She won the J J Brough Flute Prize at the RAM, in 1993, and the Lawrence Beauregard Flute Competition, in 1994, in Quebec.

Rachel has freelanced with many orchestras, including The Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She relocated from Surrey to Newcastle in 2004, since when she has freelanced with Royal Northern Sinfonia, the English Philharmonic, Orchestra for Alnwick Choral Society, Orchestra of Hexham Abbey Festival Chorus and the British Philharmonic, and was Principal Flute with Northern Orchestra from its inauguration in 2016. She is Principal Flute with the North East Film Orchestra and freelances with many orchestras and in the pit band for shows at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle and The Tyne Theatre.

She is a member of the Westerly Trio with pianist David Murray and violinist Jessica Graham Westerly Trio Home Page and is sought after as a soloist, having performed the Mozart D major concerto and Gluck Concerto with local orchestras, in recent years.

A committed teacher, Rachel teaches all ages and abilities, is Head of Woodwind Studies at Newcastle University and teaches flute and coaches in music performance at Northumbria and Durham Universities, local schools and privately. She has been an ABRSM graded examiner since 2003.

Helena attended the Royal College of Music, supported by the Henry Wood Trust. She studied with Daphne Boden and Ieuan Jones and participated in masterclasses with Marisa Robles and Isabelle Perrin. Whilst at RCM she performed as principal harp with the RCM Philharmonic, Symphony and Opera Orchestras as well as with the London Arts Orchestra and Orchestra Vitae. With the Orion Trio (flute, viola and harp) she reached the final of the British Harp Chamber Music Competition. Helena is interested in using arts in healthcare and has worked with schemes at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. Locally she has played with an ensemble for the Brundibar Arts Festival, which is dedicated to the music of the Holocaust as well as performances with Newcastle Cathedral’s Schola Cantorum.