Meet the Conductor!

This Women's History Month, we celebrate women in the arts here at the Gloucester Arts Festival. In partnership with The Cook Foundation, we are pleased to announce the conductor for the 2022 Virginia Symphony Orchestra's Under the Stars FREE Family concert on Saturday, June 11th is Helen Martell. 

Helen Martell has dedicated her life’s work to music education and orchestral conducting. Martell serves as the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Director of Education and as the Staff Conductor. Helen is also the Music Director and Symphony Orchestra Conductor for the Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia. 

After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Saxophone Performance and Music Education, Helen Martell performed in a professional saxophone quartet and performed with the Virginia Symphony under the direction of JoAnn Falletta and the Virginia Wind Symphony under the direction of Dennis Zeisler. Concurrently she established herself as an educator in the Chesapeake Public Schools. 

Following her passion for orchestral conducting, Helen Martell joined Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia (Hampton Roads Premiere Youth Orchestra) as Concert Orchestra Conductor in 2001 and became the Music Director and Symphony Orchestra Conductor in 2007. As a dedicated lifelong learner, she received a master’s degree in music education with an emphasis in conducting from Old Dominion University in 2018. As a passionate and dedicated educator, she has had the privilege of teaching string orchestra at The Academy of International Studies and Young Scholars at Rosemont for the Norfolk Public Schools for eighteen years. As a music educator, she has taught all levels of the orchestra. She frequently guest conducts district and regional events and previously taught string orchestra for the Norfolk Public Schools.  

We hope you will join us in welcoming her to Main Street on June 11th!

This project was supported [in part] by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.