Helen Neilson: Director and principal group cello teacher

Helen is the founder of “Our Cello Community” SW18 based group programme and SW4 based teaching practice. She has had a thriving teaching practice in South London since around 2008, where she has started many young cellists from around the age of 4 and has developed many right through to beyond grade 8 levels in their senior school years. Individual lessons take place in SW4 and young complete beginners aged 4-7 are given priority for places to begin lessons. Individual lessons take place after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Other individual cases are considered upon request. All students are required to attend both weekly individual lessons during term time and group programme lessons 6 Saturday mornings a term.

Helen is a trained Suzuki teacher to level 5, having undertaken her level 5 training in Spain with Eulalia Subirà (Spain) and Carey Beth Hockett (USA) and in the States via Zoom with Laura Shaw (USA).  She completed all earlier levels in the UK working with trainers including Tessa Oakley, Penny Heath and Annette Constazi. As part of this training, she has fully memorised the Suzuki repertoire across all 10 books, up to Boccherini B flat Concerto, and has made videos of all pieces. She has studied teaching points across the repertoire, and has done a lot of wider research and reading around Suzuki philosophy and has studied wider supporting technical work and repertoire across all levels from pre-Twinkle to advanced concerto repertoire.

Helen is Head of Strings at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, and has taught cello and chamber music there since 2008. She has taught cello and double bass at St Paul’s Girl’s School since 2004, and teaches on the whole class strings programme at the  Aldgate School where all children learn for free as part of the school curriculum for four years. She has previously successfully developed Suzuki cello group programmes at Little Venice Suzuki Group and Bayswater Suzuki Group. She has an outstanding track record of results for her students, including many achieving distinctions across all grade levels from grade 1 to Diploma level. many have gone on to achieve music scholarships to their senior schools of choice.

Helen has taught on many major Suzuki courses including Bryanston and CelloFest.  She is a regular cello coach for South London Youth Orchestra, and has taught regularly on the London Cello Society “Cello Days” and other Cello Club events since 2011, having previously been the Director of Cello Club, the Junior Division of the London Cello Society.  She coached advanced cello sectionals for the Duet Group Philharmonic for their Mahler 8 and Strauss “Eine Alpensinfonie” concerts at the Royal Festival Hall and has taught at Pro Corda cello course.  She was a principal syllabus consultant for the current Trinity Strings cello exam syllabus, and has delivered lectures at the University of Cambridge on “The Practical Application of the Singing Voice in Instrumental Teaching”. Helen has regularly mentored young cello teachers for the Music Masters programme, including on their iPGCE course in Instrumental Group Teaching.

Helen has given cello recitals in many venues in London and further afield, and has extensively explored the repertoire for the instrument. She also plays the double bass, and frequently plays double bass with orchestras, including being principal bass of St Paul’s Sinfonia. She has toured countries including China and India with orchestras, and has performed at festivals around the UK. A highlight performance was playing double bass for the cello ensemble in the final night of the Prades Festival in 2017 in France in the Abbaye St Michel de Cuxa, where Pablo Casals performed the Bach Cello Suites for the first time! In summer term 2025, she enjoyed performing chamber music in recital with the outgoing High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School.

Helen holds a clear Enhanced DBS and is registered with the DBS Update service and undertakes regular safeguarding training.

Musicianship classes and ensemble support

From 2026, our two lead musicianship and ensemble support teachers are: Abbie Inman and Freya Ruuskanen. Occasionally some of our other teachers from our community come to offer classes and support too.

Marianne Hardisty is an experienced freelance musician and teacher, who not only enjoys playing and teaching classical music, but has also performed across the globe playing different genres, including hip-hop and folk. As a member of Maple Rose Strings, Gold Quartet an

d other London based ensembles, Marianne has performed in varying venues, from The Royal Albert Hall, to Glastonbury Festival. She is the Principal cellist of Street Orchestra Live, who bring music out of the concert hall and into everyday life, performing everywhere from prisons and refugee centres, to beaches and buses.

Over the past fifteen years, Marianne has built up a wealth of experience, teaching in schools, music hubs, and privately. A couple of highlights have included being a workshop leader with BBC Proms Inspire and London Philharmonic Animate, as well as currently being a cello and musicianship tutor with Music Masters. She has previously taught whole class strings with Lambeth Music Service.

Alongside playing and teaching, Marianne also arranges songs and pieces for various ensembles, including arranging two Hip Hop songs for orchestra, which were performed at the Barbican Sound Unbound Festival in 2019.

Marianne has a BMus Hons from Royal Northern College of Music, and a MMus from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Abbie Muvuma

I was born in London and began learning the piano at age 6 and the cello at age 7 with Helen Neilson! I attended the Junior Guildhall for eight years where I studied cello with Selma Gokcen and piano with Shelagh Sutherland. During my last year there, I decided I wanted to teach, as I desired to be able to use my gifts to impact the lives of others.

I went on to study the Kodály Method with David Vinden, and the Suzuki Method with Angela East, as well as taking the dipABRSM and LRSM in Music Performance on cello.

I have always had an interest in bringing music to children who have limited or no access to music tuition and in 2016 spent a few months volunteering at the Kampala Music School in Uganda. During my time there I taught cello, piano and musicianship, as well as giving weekly music lessons to a class of about 100 children in one of Kampala’s biggest slums.

I have taught cello for almost seven years now, as a Lead Cello Teacher for Music Masters, at Dunedin School of Music in Surrey and I also have several private cello and piano students. I love to incorporate a combination of Suzuki and Kodály methods in my teaching, as my goal is to enable my students to be well-rounded young musicians!

I also play as much as I can and have formed a guitar and cello duo with my husband, where we perform regularly at various events. My musical interests are focused on Contemporary and Jazz music at the moment, and I will be performing with the Nu Civilization Orchestra & Nubya Garcia at the Southbank Centre in September 2023.

Freya Ruuskanen

Freya grew up in Edinburgh and developed her love for the Cello through gaining a place in the City of Edinburgh music school. The joy of being able to play in a variety of different styles on the Cello has sustained her in her freelance career of touring in folk bands across Europe, gigging in London and playing in a band that fuses funk with classical. Whilst in Scotland, Freya enjoyed playing alongside the RSNO, Scottish Ensemble and NYOS.

It was during her studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland that she discovered she had a passion for teaching. Freya was a lead ambassador for the Benedetti Foundation, which emphasised to her the essential value of accessible and engaging music education. It was from this that she went on to work with Music Masters gaining her PGCEI with them in 2025. Freya has continued to work with them as a Cello teacher in both support and leading across schools in London as well as expanding her own private teaching.