Helen Vollam

Helen is Principal Trombone of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bones Apart and Septura.

She was appointed Principal Trombone of the BBCSO in 2004; the first woman to be appointed principal trombone of a London orchestra.

She has worked with most of the UK’s orchestras including the LSO, Philharmonia, Orchestra of the Royal Ballet and Opera, LPO, English National Opera, RPO, Sinfonia of London and the Constellation Orchestra. Further afield she has performed with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Spira Mirabilis and the Freiburg Barockorchester. She has worked with conductors such as Haitink, Giulini, Abbado, Oramo, Boulez, Nézet-Séguin, Harnoncourt, Ozawa, Blomstedt, Rattle, Mäkelä, Pappano and John Williams.

Helen studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, learning with Eric Crees, Peter Gane and Simon Wills. During this time, she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, won the Bronze Medal in the Shell/LSO Music Scholarship, and was awarded the Morris Smith Trombone Prize, the Harry Mortimer Brass Prize and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust postgraduate award.

In 2003 Helen won the Woodwind & Brass Award and the Philip Jones Brass Prize in the final of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition. She was the first trombone player to reach the final.

She has given classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Trinity Laban, Wells Cathedral and Purcell Schools. She is a former Visiting Artist in Trombone at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and was a trombone tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music. She has adjudicated for BBC Young Musician, Royal Over-Seas League, BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award, Getzen Ian Bousfield, Swisstbone, Città di Porcia, British Trombone Society and International Trombone Association Competitions. She was the recipient of the BTS’s Sheila Tracy Award for ‘significant contribution to her field’ in both 2017 and 2025.

Helen has played on numerous film and video game soundtrack recordings, including Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones, 3 Harry Potter films, Inception, Iron Man 2, Brave and No Time To Die.

In 2019 Helen gave the world premiere of Gavin Higgins’ trombone concerto Book of Miracles, commissioned for her, with the BBCSO at the Barbican Hall. In 2022 Helen was awarded ‘Player of the Year’ by the British Trombone Society. In 2026 she gave the Australian premiere of the Higgins concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane.