Natalie Helm, newly appointed principal cellist of the Sarasota Orchestra, is profiled by Dahlia Ghabour in last Sunday’s (12/25) Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida). Helm, 29, was born and raised in Louisville, where her mother “insisted that Helm and her sister, Rebecca, play instruments… The first thing [Natalie] played, as soon as she had mastered the fingering, was Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. It was ‘The Cello Piece’ for Helm as a child, and it’s remained one of her favorites.” A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, with an artist diploma from the Colburn School, Helm took her “first full-time job at a professional orchestra in Sarasota.… ‘You are never going to find a friendlier orchestra or more supportive atmosphere,’ Helm said.… ‘There’s not a competitive bone here. It’s for the well-being of everything, and I love that.’ Helm said she spends an average of 25 hours a week practicing on her own outside of orchestra rehearsals.…‘You’re not going to luck into this career,’ she said. ‘You have to work for it, nonstop, even once you have a job. And you have to be careful not to let that change your love of music.’ ”
Posted January 3, 2017
