Originally from Edinburgh, Helen Grime studied composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh and oboe with John Anderson at the Royal College of Music, and came to public attention in 2003 with her award-winning Oboe Concerto – for which she herself was the soloist in its world premiere. She attended the Britten Pears Contemporary Performance & Composition course in 2005, and in 2009 her work A Cold Spring was commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival and premiered by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Oliver Knussen at the Jubilee Hall.

Her works have been performed by leading orchestras around the world and championed by conductors including Simon Rattle, Mark Elder, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen and Marin Alsop. In 2017 she was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Her music frequently draws inspiration from other artforms, such as painting (Five Northeastern Scenes for oboe and piano, 2016), the miniature worlds of Joseph Cornell’s box assemblages (Night Songs, 2012) and literature (Folk, 2024, with a libretto by Zoe Gilbert based on her novel of the same name), and has won praise in equal measure for the craftsmanship of its construction and the urgency of its telling.

Helen Grime’s Missa Brevis, performed by the Britten Pears Chamber Choir during the annual Aldeburgh Festival Service.

Knussen Chamber Orchestra and soprano Claire Booth perform Grime’s new BPA co-commissioned work, Folk.

Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble presents the UK premiere of Grime’s Prayer, as part of the exciting New Music Now.

Grime’s violin concerto performed by fellow Featured Artist, violinist Leila Josefowicz, alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Another Grime performance from BBC Symphony Orchestra, this time of her dreamy Night Songs, alongside Britten and Sibelius.

Both of Grime’s string quartets paired together for the first time in one recital, performed by the Heath and Fibonacci Quartets.