Sylvaine Hélary

Born in Toulouse in 1976, Sylvaine Hélary has built a career whose boundary spans jazz, improvised music, contemporary composition and stage music. Trained on the classical flute in Rennes, then in Boulogne-Billancourt and Paris, she later turns to improvisation, notably with Bernard Lubat, and for about ten years takes part in the Surnatural Orchestra. Her work unfolds both in solo projects, in small ensembles and in more orchestral formats, with particular attention to timbres, breath, voice and open forms. Sylvaine Hélary leads several personal projects, including Spring Roll, from which the albums Spring Roll: Printemps (2015) and Spring Roll: Episodes (2019) come, followed by Glowing Life (2020), where writing makes jazz, electric textures and inflections from progressive rock dialogue. She also publishes Sylvaine Hélary Trio (2011), The Sync (2016), and Rare Birds (2024) with L’Orchestre Incandescent. In parallel, she collaborates with musicians such as Christophe Monniot, Marc Ducret, Ève Risser or Robin Fincker, and also composes for live performance and for young audiences. Since 2025, Sylvaine Hélary has been the general and artistic director of the National Jazz Orchestra.