© Jonathan Wrather

Born in 1981, Helen studied oboe with John Anderson and
composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of
Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was
awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well
as all the major composition prizes in the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a
Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music
Center where she studied
with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read
Thomas. Grime was a Legal and General Junior Fellow at the Royal College
of Music from 2007 to 2009. She became a lecturer in composition at the
Department of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London,
in January 2010.

Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most
established performers including London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten
Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music
Center. Conductors who
have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Pierre Boulez and Yan Pascal
Tortelier. Her work Night Songs was commissioned by the BBC Proms in
2012 and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen.
In 2011 she was appointed Associate Composer to the Hallé Orchestra for an
initial tenure of three years. Her first commission for them, Near Midnight,
is to be premiered on May 23 2013 and a recording of her orchestral works performed by the Hallé will be released as part of the NMC Debut Disc Series in 2014.  Upcoming performances include the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra performing Everyone Sang in May 2014 and a new
string trio commissioned by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Wigmore
Hall for April 2015

Helen Grime was born in 1981. She studied oboe with
John Anderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the
Royal College of Music. She graduated from the BMus course with First Class
Honours and completed her Masters with Distinction in 2004. From 2005-07, Helen
was a Legal & General Junior Fellow at the RCM. In 2001 she wrote Doorstepping Susanna, a short opera, for
ENO Studio and Tête à Tête Opera. In 2003 Helen’s Oboe Concerto was premiered
by the Meadows Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Evans, with Helen as
soloist. In 2004, she performed the concerto with the RCM Sinfonietta conducted
by Neil Thomson. Helen won the Making Music category of the 2003 British
Composer Awards with Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate
Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as all the major composition
prizes at the RCM. Following winning the British Composer Award, BBC Radio 3
commissioned Chasing Butterflies for
100 violas led by the BBCSSO viola section and conducted by Martyn
Brabbins. 

Helen’s
music has been performed by some of the finest orchestras and ensembles
including the LSO, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, BCMG, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hebrides
Ensemble and the Kungsbacka Trio. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3
and 4. Romance, for violin and piano, has been released on Usk Records
performed by Alexandra Wood and Huw Watkins and Nobody Comes for voice
and piano appears on the NMC Songbook disc performed by Jean Rigby and Huw
Watkins. 

Helen
attended the Britten-Pears Contemporary Performance and Composition course in
2005, and in 2006, the Aldeburgh Opera Writing workshops. In 2008 she was
awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music
Center where she studied
with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. A
commission by the Tanglewood
Music Center,
a work for solo clarinet and ensemble, was performed at the 2009 Festival of
Contemporary Music. The orchestral piece Virga, commissioned by the LSO
in partnership with UBS received its first performance in July 2007 conducted
by Yan Pascal Tortelier. Virga was performed at the 2009 BBC Proms by
the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen. Virga received
its French premiere with the Orchestre de Paris and Pierre Boulez in May 2010.
Other performances include those with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
under Daniel Harding and the RSNO with Stéphane Denève.

Other
commissions include Everyone Sang, an orchestral work written for the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's 75th Birthday in 2010, Into the faded air
for the Britten Sinfonia, which received its premiere tour in January 2008 and
A Cold Spring for ten instruments commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival
for the BCMG under Oliver Knussen, and premiered in June 2009.

Helen’s
music was featured as one of the Philharmonia’s Music of Today concerts in
January 2010 where her Clarinet Concerto received its UK premiere along with a new work
for violin and viola, To see the summer sky. Also in 2010 she was
awarded the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund and appointed as Lecturer of
Composition at Royal Holloway, University
of London.

More
recently she wrote the critically acclaimed Oboe Quartet, a commission from
Winsor Music which was premiered in Boston
in 2012. This piece received its UK premiere in 2013 performed by
Nicholas Daniel and members of the Britten Sinfonia. Also in 2012 Helen was
commissioned by the BBC to write Night Songs for Oliver Knussen’s 60^th
birthday Prom. It was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Knussen .

Helen
has been Associate Composer of The Hallé since the 2011/12 season. The appointment
has an initial period of three years and the first commission from them, Near
Midnight will be premiered on May 23 2013 at Bridgewater Hall.

Upcoming
performances include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performing Everyone
Sang in May 2014 and a new string trio commissioned by Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center and Wigmore Hall for April 2015.