Gold Coast Concert Chorus Director

Elizabeth Helms

Elizabeth Helms was the principal accompanist for the Gold Coast Concert Chorus from 2000 to 2005, under the direction of her husband, Ken, and assisted the GCCC in keeping the music alive by directing their June 2005 concert. Elizabeth lives and works in Ventura County, and is proud to be part of the musical community here year round. Her most enduring association has been with the Ventura County Master Chorale, for which she has been principal rehearsal accompanist since 1981, and has recently been named as Associate Director. She has also performed with the Ventura Chamber Festival Orchestra, the Ventura County Chamber Orchestra, the New West Symphony, the Ventura County Symphony, the Ventura College Theatre and Music Departments, and the vocal studios of Geraldine Decker and Linda Ottsen, to name a few. Elizabeth has taught in the Ventura College Music Department for 16 years, coordinating the College’s Private Music Lessons Program since 1990. She directs the College Choir, the College Chamber Singers, and teaches Musicianship. She is currently Choir Director at Church of the Foothills in Ventura, and coaches vocal students in the California Lutheran University Music Department. She received her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction with a Specialization in Subject Area (Music) from Cal Lutheran in August 2005. She spent a week in August in Seattle at the Tallis Scholars Summer School, a workshop that consists entirely of practicing and performing Renaissance choral music.

Elizabeth has three children. Her daughter Katherine is attending Cal Lutheran in the fall as a music major, with a double instrumental emphasis of violin and percussion. Her daughter Jessica, a graduate of Cal Lutheran, will be working on her graduate degree in collaborative piano at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. Her son Geoffrey, a nationally certified acupuncturist and herbalist, is returning from a year of teaching in China to begin building his practice. He plans to specialize in the treatment of dancers and musicians. He also plans to resume his voice studies with Geraldine Decker.