The Cello
I have been playing the cello since I was eight years old. For most of that time I was a classical musician. I received my Bachelor’s of Music from Cal State Northridge where I studied with Peter Rejto, the son of Gabor Rejto, a cellist who taught with Piatagorsky at USC. I later went on to get my Master’s Degree in Cello Performance at Northwestern University with Hans Jensen, an amazing teacher who really pushed me.
For the past 30 years, though, I have devoted all my energies to composing, arranging and performing as a rock artist. I’ve put out 5 solo albums, numerous collaborations and contributed as a performer and arranger on countless others.
As a teacher, I draw on both of these aspects of my career. Most importantly, I believe rhat the only way to achieve a good sound, the most important aspect being a performer, is to study the fundamentals through classical music.
Once you have a grasp of the fundamentals, it’s easier to express yourself through whichever genre of music calls you. It’s easier to compose and write when the sound you produce is the sound you want to hear.
Beyond teaching the basics, I work with musicians on improving technique, developing good practice habits, basic improvisation and composing, and experimenting sonically with effects pedals and loopers.
If you think you could benefit from learning with me, I would love to work with you. I’m primarily doing You can contact me at helen@helenmoney.com for availability. My rates are as follows:
30 minutes - $45; 45 minutes - $70; 60 minutes - $90
Something Holy
Three years ago my brother moved up to Northern California from the San Fernando Valley where he lived for many years and where we grew up. His new home was situated in the Redwoods in Sonoma County, North of Berkeley where my sister lived. It’s an amazing place - tall trees surround his home and fill the hills around. It’s incredibly quiet - there’s lots of rain during the Fall and Winter, and fog comes down the nearby Russian River during the Summer.
As the three of us transitioned to life without my parents - they had passed away a few years before - we found that we had to connect with each other in a new way. We made a commitment to be together at his place in the woods - to meet there every couple of months.
I would fly into San Francisco from Chicago and meet my sister in Berkeley. We’d get some food and coffee and head up North. Often we’d show up in the evening, after my brother had taken one of his five hour hikes near the coast. It was always wonderful to see him again, to make a fire in his wood burning stove, make dinner together - maybe watch an episode of Star Trek.
Lots of times at the end of the evening we would go outside onto his front deck. As we opened the front door it was like stepping out into the void - it was so dark out - so completely black. But then our eyes would adjust - we’d look up and see so many stars. It was breathtaking. You could see the outline of the Milky Way, sometimes satellites twinkling past. And framing it all were the tops of these tall Redwoods. We could almost hear them breathing. Such a powerful presence.
It was like we were in a cathedral. In the presence of the most sacred, timeless beauty imaginable. Something Holy.
New World, New Record
As I write this, I feel like we’re all in a strange new world these days. In one sense we have lost touch - quite literally - with each other. In another, we are all reaching out in incredible ways to keep the contact we so desperately need as beings on this planet.
As I wrote this last record I was re-reading a book that struck a chord with me when I first picked it up years ago. It’s called The Swerve by Steven Greenblatt. It’s the story about the Roman philosopher Lucretius and his treatise De Rerum Natura or On the Nature of Things. Sounds like heady stuff, but it’s really just about how we are all connected - all of us - animals, earth, the stars, humans. We are all of the same stuff - atoms. So I decided to name my album Atomic.
I had been thinking about connection anyway - as my brother and sister as I navigated life after our parents passed. As my fiancé’s family supported us and gathered us into their arms. As we spent time together at my brother’s house in the Redwoods - staring up at the stars and walking among those mighty giants. We are all connected. We are all one.