Before joining the violin section of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Helen Strilec was a member of the Syracuse Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra and, for 28 years, the New York City Opera Orchestra.  During the course of her career in New York, Helen also appeared with such ensembles as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus and the P.D.Q. Bach Orchestra. Helen studied violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music (from which she has a B.M.) and the Juilliard School.  Her teachers included Dorothy Delay and Joseph Fuchs.