Helen Callus
British-born violist Helen Callus has achieved international prominence as a concerto soloist, chamber music player, and, in her adopted country of the U.S., educator, arts administrator, and journalist. Callus was born in Orpington in Britain's county Kent outside London. She began studying music at age six and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Ian Jewel. After graduating, she was designated an Associate and then a Fellow of the RAM, while also moving on for graduate study at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Callus made her recording debut in 2002 with the recital Portrait of the Viola on the ASV label, and a major breakthrough came the following year when she performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in front of a live audience of 4,000 as well as viewers of 2,000 television stations worldwide. The year 2005 also saw Callus triumph in a less public vein: for the innovative and audiophile label ECM she recorded Giya Kancheli's Piano Quartet, a recording that earned a BBC Best Choice for Chamber Music Recording nod. Callus has continued to record for ASV (her 2006 recording Walton won special critical acclaim), for Canada's Analekta label (Bach's Suites for solo cello, transcribed for viola, in 2011), Dutton Laboratories (the complete music for viola and orchestra of Gordon Jacob), and, in 2018, Naxos, for which she released the collection British Music for Viola and Orchestra. Callus has performed and recorded with such renowned chamber groups as the Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets.
In the U.S., Callus has been especially influential as a teacher. After teaching posts at the University of Washington and the University of California, Santa Barbara, she was appointed to the music faculty at Northwestern University. Callus was the first woman elected president of the American Viola Society, and she has written for the magazines Strings and The Strad. Callus has also served as artistic director of the Centrum Chamber Music Festival in Port Townsend, Washington, and has made frequent festival appearances on the U.S. West Coast.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
7 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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British Music for Viola Concertos
Classical - Released by Naxos on 11 May 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Six Cello Suites on Viola
Classical - Released by Analekta on 8 Mar 2011
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
A Portrait Of The Viola
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on 8 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach - Krebs - Abel
Classical - Released by Groupe Analekta, Inc on 3 Feb 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lament Amid Silence: The Lament Cycle and Meditations
Joel Feigin, Helen Callus, Callus Viola Studio
Classical - Released by MSR Classics on 14 Aug 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky Hits
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on 23 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Romantic Works for Viola
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo