Search - Helen Jane Long, Nicholas Holland, Katherine Jenkinson :: Intervention

Helen Jane Long was first voted into the Classical FM Hall of Fame in 2011 for her album, Embers. She then achieved a second addition to the Hall of Fame in 2012. Her music is used in commercials for Volkswagen and British Airways as well as on numerous film and television shows. But probably the most significant sign of her success is that there are hundreds of musicians and fans covering her music on YouTube. 'Expression' from the 'Porcelain' album seems to be a particular favourite and has gone on to be used on Fox TVs hugely successful series, (made by the creators of American Idol) So You Think You Can Dance . All of this is from a prodigy who was born in sleepy Hampshire on the southern coast of England. Helen Jane Long began playing piano when she was four. Her older brother was already studying the instrument, but after his lessons were over, Long would slip onto the piano bench and replicate what her brother was being taught. Andrew went on to become a hugely successful architect designing houses for a long list of celebrities and high profile entrepreneurs. Long, encouraged by her parents, went another way. Classical music was her path, but like many young composers, Long didn t see many prospects for getting her music performed by classical ensembles, so she formed her own virtual orchestra. The idea came to her when she borrowed her grandfather's Casio keyboard, an early digital instrument that allowed her to over-dub herself. Once she realized she could do it herself she began bouncing tracks on cassette players. She solved the problem of finding other willing musicians by learning instruments herself including cello, violin, clarinet and guitar. Her first cello was made by her father and she still plays it to this day. The music that Helen Jane Long created through this method is at once nostalgic and modern. Her 2007 debut, Porcelain, on Warner Classics, revealed her as a sensitive composer whose music hinted at elements of George Winston, Ludovico Einaudi, Craig Armstrong and Arvo Pärt, She has a gift for melodies that tug at your heart without sounding saccharine. Eschewing conventional classical career moves, Long instead came to renown composing music for commercials. Her open, cinematic compositions were perfect for television ads she scored for the Volkswagen Passat and British Airways. That's not surprising. She s worked closely with several noted film composers including the late-Jerry Goldsmith and Howard Shore when he was composing and recording his Academy Award-winning soundtrack for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She brought many of the lessons learned there into her own film scores. On Intervention, Helen Jane Long included a string ensemble of violins and cello, including cellist Nick Holland from the famed Balanescu Quartet. But she still composes in the same solitary fashion and the music still comes from a deeply private place. Many of her songs emerge from personal experience. Finding, from her album Embers , was written for her father when he was in a coma. 'sometimes controlling emotions is the only way to get through stuff' And that's what Intervention is. Music to get you through stuff, a sound that takes you away from your troubles, even while affirming your turmoil. Helen Jane Long's music is the sound of hope.