New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Evolution Promotion) When British Composer/Pianist Helen Jane Long is composing music, she wants to attain nothing less than tranquility; music that aspires to an elegance and civility rarely found in this world. In other words, the music of Helen Jane Long makes you feel good.
How good? She was named to the UK's Classic FM Hall of Fame in 2011 for her 2010 album, Embers. Her music is used commercially for Volkswagen, British Airways,
National Geographic, Discovery, and the BBC. But probably the most significant sign of her success is that there are over 10,000 musicians and fans covering her music on YouTube.
After many composers were considered, it was Long who won over the hearts and minds of British Airways when they went looking for the perfect musical score for their most ambitious television advertising campaign since the 1960's. Helen wrote and recorded the score, named "The Aviators", at London's famous AIR Studios and the commercial was broadcast incessantly on television around the world in late winter of 2012. Long quickly claimed the piece for inclusion on the new album, Intervention.
Classical music was her path since the age of 4, but like many young composers, Long didn't see many prospects for getting her music performed by classical ensembles, so she formed her own virtual orchestra. The idea came to her when she borrowed her Grandmother's Casio keyboard, an early digital instrument that allowed her to over-dub herself. After that, she began bouncing tracks on cassette players. She solved the problem of finding other willing musicians by learning cello, violin and guitar herself. Her first cello was made by her father and she still plays it to this day.
On her third release, Intervention, Helen Jane Long included a string quartet of violins and cello, including cellist Nick Holland from the famed Balanescu Quartet. But she composes in a solitary fashion and the music comes from a deeply private place. All of her songs emerge from personal experience. Intervention was written in the wake of several deaths in her family, among them her Grandmother. It is what gives the album its' deeply emotional pull.
Tour dates are being booked now for a sprawling tour of the U.S. and Canada to support the new album. The Intervention tour will take Helen Jane Long and her string quartet, the London Players, to cities large and small. Dates are planned for Toronto, Rochester, Cincinnati, Philadelphia,
Santa Fe, Denver, Salt Lake City, Vancouver,
Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
All of Helen's tour dates will be announced on her website as they are confirmed.
Other Helen Jane Long albums, including Porcelain and Embers, are available everywhere fine music is sold.