Helen Goldsmith – Clarinet, Saxophone, Flute and Music Theory
Helen Hodgkiss is a classical crossover artist with her specialism being in classical clarinet performance.
Having obtained her degree at the prestigious Leeds Conservatoire in 2016 under the tutelage of the extraordinary clarinettist Colin Honour (retired principal clarinettist at Opera North, Leeds), Helen specialised in clarinet performance, community music and music business. Since graduating, Helen has been an active performer across the North West performing with Soft Cell's Marc Almond as a session clarinettist on his Torch tour in 2016 and in 2017, touring as part of Reed & Ivory with pianist Ben Cockburn bringing the works of modern day composers to life. Helen is a passionate community musician and enjoys giving frequent performances and workshops across care homes and for Macmillan Cancer Support. As a recitalist, Helen performs regularly across Merseyside, Fylde and West Yorkshire with her duo partner in their ensemble Reed & Ivory for many lunchtime concert series and corporate events. Helen also makes regular appearances in theatre pits as a multi reed player on clarinet, flute and saxophone. Her favourite show experiences have been 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Sister Act' and 'The Marriage of Figaro' across The Halifax Playhouse, CAPA Wakefield and The Carriageworks in Leeds.
Helen currently enjoys a portfolio career of teaching and performing. Her current performance commitments involve being a regular pit theatre musician at Southport's Little Theatre and 2nd Clarinettist Deputy for The Blackpool Symphony Orchestra. Helen's passion and love of music education is unyielding. Alongside her performance commitments, Helen has 15 years teaching experience in woodwind and music theory and is a highly skilled performance coach and music mentor. Helen is also a qualified Nursery Assistant and obtained her level 2 Certificate in Counselling skills in 2021. Helen teaches for Sefton & Blackpool Music Service & Prelude School of Music as well as managing and facilitating lessons through her own company 'Gold Music Tuition' since 2020, her proudest achievement to date which is continuing to grow from strength to strength.