Rachel Helleur-Simcock

Rachel Helleur-Simcock, born in Great Britain in 1980, started learning the cello at the age of 6. She attended the Purcell School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, from where she also took a semester's exchange to the Eastman School of Music in the USA. She moved to Berlin in 2004 to study at the Hochschule fuer Musik 'Hanns Eisler' with Troels Svane and then a year later took up a place at the Orchestral Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic where she studied with Olaf Maninger. Rachel gained orchestral experience as guest principal cello with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Hamburg Radio Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2007 Rachel was engaged as Principal Cellist of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, then 2 years later moved to a tutti position with the Berlin Philharmonic.