The South China Morning Post declared that flutist Helen Campo “had such dazzlingly beautiful tone, that she could only be called extraordinary... she displayed stunning lucidity, colour, and figuration.” In addition, Leonard Bernstein said, “Miss Campo plays the flute the way I wish I could sing.” Since her debut at the age of 14, Ms. Campo has made hundreds of solo appearances, from concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra and other orchestras in the Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and the Hong Kong Cultural Center, to a guest television appearance with the Muppets. The youngest flutist ever to win Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and the first flutist to win Artists International Distinguished Artists Award, she has been the subject of feature articles in several national magazines. Helen also won the position of Acting Associate Principal Flutist with the Houston Symphony and has performed as Assistant Principal with the Baltimore Symphony. In addition, she has been a long-time substitute musician with the NYC Ballet, NYC Opera, and NY Philharmonic performing the Principal Flute, Second Flute, and Piccolo positions with all three organizations. As such, she has made many recordings with the NY Philharmonic, including a great deal of wonderful repertoire on the piccolo, including Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale and Firebird. In addition, she performed Barber Summer Music and Nielsen Quintet with members of the NY Philharmonic on their chamber music series and in a lecture demo led by Maestro Alan Gilbert. Helen is now a member of the New York Pops, NJ Festival Orchestra, Greenwich Symphony, Queens Symphony, and Discovery Orchestra, and is also a former member of the NY Symphonic Ensemble, the White Plains Symphony, EOS Ensemble, Cathedral of St John the Divine Symphony, Teatro Grattacielo, and the Summer Ballet Orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera. Over the years, she has additionally performed with American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, Colonial Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Jupiter Symphony, Queens Symphony, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Metropolitan Opera, NY Choral Society, Little Orchestra Society, NJ Symphony, NJ Opera Orchestra, Mostly Mozart, Long Island Philharmonic, NY Chamber Orchestra, and others. A long-time proponent of New Music, more than 20 solo and chamber works have been written for her. In addition to her accomplishments in the field of classical music, Helen was also the flutist for Nickelodeon’s #1 TV show Wonderpets! and can be heard on many television commercials and films and has been the Principal Flutist of 11 Broadway shows, currently, Wicked, and has also performed and recorded with Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett, James Taylor, Radio City Rockettes, Stevie Wonder, PDQ Bach, Sting, The Beach Boys, The Who, among many others. Notably, she has appeared on the Today Show and with Aretha Franklin and The Musician Rodriguez from the movie “Searching for Sugarman” on Late Night with David Letterman. 

In addition to her creative accomplishments, Helen is also highly regarded as a colleague within orchestral sections. Alison Fierst, Associate Principal Flutist of the New York Philharmonic, writes, “Helen Campo is a phenomenal musician, collaborator, and colleague. From all the times I have gotten to perform with Helen in the Philharmonic it has brought me nothing but joy. Her thorough preparation, advanced technical skills, utmost professionalism, and cheerful demeanor contribute to a very pleasant work environment that our flute section in the Philharmonic cherish greatly.”

Helen graduated at the age of 16 as valedictorian of her high school class and was awarded the Chadwick Medal upon graduating from New England Conservatory with honors and distinction and the School-wide Graduate Achievement Award with honors and distinction from Queens College, where she attended as a fellowship student. Just before graduating from Queens with her Master of Arts degree, she took the LSAT at the urging of her physician brother and scored in the 92nd percentile in the country. In spite of this, she decided to forego the pleasures of law school and stick with the flute. She was also a member of the Tanglewood Fellowship Orchestra, Sasha Schneider’s New York String Orchestra, and studied with Murray Panitz, John Krell, Julius Baker, Robert Stallman, John Heiss, and Robert Langevin.

Collaborations