Helen Jane Long

Helen Jane Long is a British composer and independant artist who in early 2018 became the first ever billion streaming pianist..

Born and raised on the southern coast of England, composer Helen began her musical career by shadowing her older brother during his piano lessons after which she would pull her four-year-old self up onto the bench and play what she’d heard by ear. Her ability to recreate the sounds she heard quickly became one of the cornerstones of her composing career as she taught herself to play the cello, violin and guitar in rapid succession in order to create her own orchestral arrangements.

After earning her degree at Bristol college, Helen quickly landed a job with the BBC where she immersed herself in the world of television scores and often worked with composers Ronnie Hazlehurst (Only Fools and Horses), Dennis King (Black Beauty) and Nigel Hess (Ladies in Lavender), and was mentored by composer Ron Goodwin who taught her the importance of being both passionate about the composition process and mindful of the people she worked with.

In 2003, Howard Shore hired Helen to work on The Lord of the Rings Trilogy as “Musical Score Continuity Director.” Helen spent the next several years creating a detailed reference library of every musical recording take done for the films, as well as infusing her own brand of Goodwin-inspired teamwork into the process.

By 2004, Helen had found success composing for television commercials and was well on her way to being associated with brands such as Mercedes, Galaxy Chocolate, Volkswagen Passat, and Bosch. In 2011, British Airways chose her to write the song for their multi-billion dollar “To Fly, To Serve” campaign to re-launch the airline. It was their biggest and most expensive rebranding in a decade.

In 2006, after Helen had tested some of her new piano compositions on the newly launched online platform, My Space, she sent some piano pieces to Warner Music and within three days she was offered a record deal. She signed a contract with Warner Classics and released her first album, Porcelain, the following year. It went on to become one of the highest selling albums on America’s largest classical radio station. Despite the success, in 2010 she followed her instincts and walked away from her contract with Warner in order to release her second album, Embers, independently with BLE Records. The album rapidly climbed the charts to become the most requested album on Classic FM radio, and, in 2011, earned Helen the honor of being the only female composer in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. By the time she released her third album, Intervention, in 2012, Helen had composed music for more than ten feature and short films, twenty commercials, and fiften documentary films. Since then she has amassed an impressive list of film and TV credits as well as releasing a further three albums.

Enormously talented, extraordinarily kind and exceptionally engaged in the processes of composing and performing, it’s obvious that no matter which lens you view Helen Jane Long through certain things remain crystal clear. Her life long devotion to her music, development of her craft, and dedication to her process has spawned music that enhances and illuminates the world around her.



For more information contact BLE Records at BLEmusicgroup@yahoo.uk