Erin Helyard has been acclaimed as an inspiring conductor and a virtuosic, expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano. He graduated in harpsichord from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with first-class honours and the University Medal, later completing a Masters in fortepiano and a PhD in musicology at McGill University, Montreal. His monograph Clementi and the woman at the piano: virtuosity and the market for music in eighteenth-century London was published by Oxford University Studies in Enlightenment in 2022.

From 2006–2012, Erin was a core member of the award-winning Ensemble Caprice in Montreal. Since returning to Australia in 2014, he has appeared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva, and the Australian String Quartet, and conducted major symphony orchestras across the country, as well as Opera Australia, ACO Collective, ANAM, and the Australian Haydn Ensemble. He has also collaborated in major recitals and recordings with Avi Avital, Nicola Boud, Melissa Farrow, David Greco, Stephanie McCallum, James Morley, and Richard Tognetti.

As Artistic Director and co-founder of Pinchgut Opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Erin has forged a distinctive vision for baroque and classical opera in Australia. His productions have been praised for their vitality and scholarship, winning multiple Helpmann Awards, an International Opera Award, an ARIA, an AIR Award, and Limelight’s 2023 Australian Artist of the Year.

He is Associate Professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and appears courtesy of Pinchgut Opera.
Image credit: Anna Kucera

AT THE FESTIVAL