Helen Hardy
Music Instructor – Flute
Email: helen.hardy@stleonards.vic.edu.au
Ensemble Director of Flute Ensemble
Lessons for this term can be viewed on the calendar that appears on the right hand side of the STL Link homepage
Parents may view lesson times by clicking on their child’s calendar in STL Link
B. Mus. (Melb.); Grad. Dip. (VCA); L. Mus. A.
Helen has over 30 years’ experience as a flute teacher. She has taught a range of levels from beginner to VCE. Helen has taught in various leading private schools. She currently teaches flute and directs the Flute Ensembles at Loreto Mandeville Hall, Brighton Grammar School and St. Leonard’s College.
Helen also has her own private teaching practice. As well as providing weekly tuition, she offers a range of extra activities to complement lessons and to provide greater musical opportunities.
As a player, Helen has been described as “one of Australia’s finest flautists” (Johanna Selleck, Herald Sun, 24th January 2001). She began working with professional orchestras over thirty years ago, whilst undertaking a post-graduate diploma of Arts in Music at the Victorian College of the Arts (having completed a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne, where she gained the top first-class honours in performance), studying with the late Peter Edge.
Helen has since held various prestigious positions, including a twelve-month full-time contract as Associate Principal Flute with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1996. In 2017 she was Acting Principal Flute for the MSO’s tour to Indonesia. Helen has performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as Guest Principal Flute and she held the position of Principal Flute with Orchestra Victoria in 2006. Helen has also made appearances as First Flute with the Australian Pops Orchestra and The Academy of Melbourne, and has also worked with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Australia Pro Arte. She has performed the Flute/Piccolo role in many Melbourne productions, including Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, South Pacific and The King and I, as well as Production Company’s Brigadoon and Oklahoma!
As a soloist, Helen has performed with many distinguished musicians, including Wendy Clarke and Carl Pini (in a performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in 1995); Len Vorster and Merlyn Quaife (at the 1998 Port Fairy Festival); and numerous recitals with pianists Julie Haskell and Clare Clements. Helen and her husband, flautist Alan Hardy, have established themselves as a successful Flute Duo partnership, having given recitals in Australia and in England.