Born in Ithaca, New York to German parents, Helene Pohl spent her childhood on both sides of the Atlantic. Starting with the Suzuki Method at 4 1⁄2, she first learned violin with Sanford Reuning, one of the seminal teachers in the spread of the Method in the USA. She must have not practiced enough, because she also found time for lessons in piano, guitar, and clarinet, and played the baritone saxophone in her high school jazz band. At 17 she began tertiary study at the Musikhochschule Cologne. She continued her studies with members of the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University with Josef Gingold, and spent many summers at the Aspen Music Festival. She also had voice lessons with Renee Fleming and viola lessons with Kim Kashkashian. From her teenage years she was irresistibly drawn to chamber music in general and string quartet in particular, and enjoyed receiving coaching from members of many great quartets, including the Amadeus, Juilliard, Orion, Emerson, Vermeer and Tokyo.

As first violinist of the San Francisco based Fidelio String Quartet (1988-1993), Helene performed extensively in the USA, Germany, England, Italy and South America. The Fidelio Quartet was a prize winner in the 1991 London International String Quartet Competition and quartet in residence at both the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals.

Helene was the first violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet from 1994 to 2024. As well as performing more than 2000 concerts worldwide with the group and recording dozens of CDs she was also a devoted teacher to a select group of students as well as coaching chamber music at Victoria University’s New Zealand School of Music Te Kōki. She has played concertos around New Zealand, including the world premiere of Louise Webster’s concerto “In Hollowed Bone I Hear the Seas Roar,” written for her in 2016. She has appeared with the Napier, Nelson and New Plymouth orchestras, St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra in Auckland, Kāpiti Concert Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and Wellington City Orchestra.

In 2001 she became Artistic Director, with fellow quartet member Gillian Ansell, of the Adam Chamber Music Festival. She is also the Patron of Arohanui Strings+, the longest running Sistema music teaching programme in New Zealand. She has been a judge for the Michael Hill Violin Competition three times, twice on the International Jury and once on the selection panel, where close to 200 applicants are whittled down to 16.

With the NZSQ, she founded and taught at 30 Adam Chamber Music Summer Schools.  She is also the founder and chief organiser of the Chamber Music Intensive Weekend in Wellington for young chamber musicians preparing for the New Zealand National Chamber Music Contest. In 2014 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her outstanding services to music in New Zealand.

Besides performing and teaching she enjoys fundraising for charity, sitting in with local klezmer band The Kugels, being involved with local Suzuki and Sistema programmes, cooking, baking, and getting out into nature, particularly of the watery sort.

To inquire about concerts or lessons, please go to the Contact Me button at the top of the page.