Helena von Rueden, mezzo-soprano, currently
makes her home in
Santa Barbara,
CA, where she performs regularly
as a vocalist and conductor.
In her 2nd
year of a combined Masters of Music/Doctor of Musical Arts program at
the
University of
California,
Santa Barbara,
Helena studies vocal performance with
Benjamin Brecher and choral conducting with Michel Marc Gervais. She is
the
Co-Conductor of both the UCSB Men's Chorus and UCSB Women's Chorus as
well as
Choral Director at First Congregational Church in
Santa Barbara. This season’s solo vocal engagements
include
the role of Cyrus in Handel’s Belshazzar
with the UCSB Chamber Singers and Orchestra, Haydn’s Nelson Mass
with the Santa Ynez Valley Master Chorale (Alto
Soloist), as well as the role of Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan
tutte in the Spring 2010 UCSB Opera performance.
As an undergraduate
at
Harvard
University,
Helena served
as Director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Chamber Singers,
studied
conducting with Jameson Marvin and Kevin Leong, and studied voice with
Marsha
Vleck. She has sung with multiple choirs including the Harvard-Radcliffe
Collegium Musicum and UCSB Chamber Choirs, touring internationally with
both.
She is the recipient of the Berkshire Choral Festival Summer Scholarship
(2009), singing under Gary Thor Wedow, and the Norfolk Choral Conducting
Summer
Fellowship (2009), studying and singing under Simon Carrington.
