Brass
Helena Giammarco started her horn studies at the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts studying with William Ver Meulen and completed her high school studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts with Frederick Bergstone. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied the modern horn with Pip Eastop and the natural horn with Andrew Clark. She was a finalist and place winner in the Dennis Brain Solo Horn Competition and was the recipient of the Mary Ella Jacob Prize while a student in London. Her love of early music was further fueled by natural horn studies with Richard Seraphinoff at the Indiana University Natural Horn Seminars. Sergeant Giammarco took part in the Salzburg Music Festival studying with Radovan Vlatkovic and performing in his horn classes. Her studies in Austria brought her to Hector McDonald, with whom she studied at the Graz Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. It was during this time that she performed at the German Brass Academy in Krefeld, Germany with her horn trio. Sergeant Giammarco completed her Master of Music degree at the University of Southern California studying with Rick Todd and Kristy Morrell. She was a member of the Scholarship Brass Quintet, while a student there, and won the Saunderson Award at the 57th Annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Sergeant Giammarco received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, studying with James Nickel of the National Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Giammarco has performed with the Alexandria Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Grazer Symphoniker, and the Honolulu Symphony. She appeared as a soloist with the Oahu Civic Orchestra and has published articles in the Horn Call journal. Sergeant Giammarco started her military career in the United States Navy in 2004. She played in and soloed with the Pacific Fleet Navy Band at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii until 2008. She joined the Air Force in 2013 and is currently a member of the Air Force Band of Mid-America at Scott Air Force Base.