Globe Trotting, multi-faceted, jazz-based cellist, singer, composer and improviser Helen Gillet is a "mixed bag" of musical influence. She has won awards as best "other instrument" in New Orleans' Best of the Beat Awards and Downbeat Magazine recently nominated her a Rising Star in the 61st Annual Critic’s Poll.

She believes music to be an expression of the entire human condition, performing an eclectic mix of French pop, Avant Garde Jazz, North Indian, Folk and Classical styles.

Helen Gillet was raised in Belgium, Singapore, Illinois and Wisconsin, and landed in her current hometown of New Orleans in 2003. Since then, she has performed in countless venues across Europe and North America and at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Kennedy Center, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, French Quarter Festival, Voodoo Festival, New Orleans Museum of Art, Kemper Museum, Italy’s Mirano Otre Festival andRecent collaborators include, Kid Koala, Hamid Drake, Van Dyke Parks, Marianne Faithful, Cassandra Wilson, The Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra, Marco Benevento and Wardell Querzergue.

Gillet has 4 self-produced albums: “Newton Circus” (2009) by her French big band Wazozo; an instrumental jazz album “Running of the Bells” (2011) by The Helen Gillet Trio with Tim Green (saxophones/bells), and Doug Garrison (drums) which received a four star review in Downbeat’s October 2011 issue. Her unique solo album “Helen Gillet” (2012) combines realtime cello, loops, and vocals in a beautiful pastiche of sound and her latest album is a live duo recording entitled: “Ferdinand”” (2013) with jazz bassist James Singleton.