Helen was a gifted violinist.
Helen, the youngest of three sisters, was born to Finnish immigrants and grew up on a poultry farm in the tiny community of Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada. She began studying violin at age 8 and traveled weekly with one of her parents 76 miles to Vancouver to study violin with Douglas Stewart. While still a teenager, she served as concertmaster of the Vancouver Junior Philamonic, and a soloist with the Seattle Symphony.
She left Canada at age 19 to study at the renown Julliard School in Manhattan. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees there. While working as a counselor one summer at a camp near Montreal, she met Janis Mintiks, whom she married in 1976.
Helen studied and performed in Italy and Switzerland. She returned to New York in 1975 when the celebrated violinist Nathan Milstein agreed to take her on as a student. She became established as a very talented and dedicated violinist who worked free-lance and was in the first call category. She was performing with the Berlin Ballet at the famed Metropolitan Opera House in New York when she was murdered.
Sources: news reports in multiple newspapers.
Note: She was a victim of homicide. There is an episode of "The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade" on Investigation Discovery (ID) TV "Phantom Killer of the Opera" (2017) documenting her life, and final days.
"When 31-year-old violinist Helen Mintiks goes missing during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, all of New York is terrified. Then she was discovered in an airshaft at the Met."
Helen, the youngest of three sisters, was born to Finnish immigrants and grew up on a poultry farm in the tiny community of Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada. She began studying violin at age 8 and traveled weekly with one of her parents 76 miles to Vancouver to study violin with Douglas Stewart. While still a teenager, she served as concertmaster of the Vancouver Junior Philamonic, and a soloist with the Seattle Symphony.
She left Canada at age 19 to study at the renown Julliard School in Manhattan. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees there. While working as a counselor one summer at a camp near Montreal, she met Janis Mintiks, whom she married in 1976.
Helen studied and performed in Italy and Switzerland. She returned to New York in 1975 when the celebrated violinist Nathan Milstein agreed to take her on as a student. She became established as a very talented and dedicated violinist who worked free-lance and was in the first call category. She was performing with the Berlin Ballet at the famed Metropolitan Opera House in New York when she was murdered.
Sources: news reports in multiple newspapers.
Note: She was a victim of homicide. There is an episode of "The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade" on Investigation Discovery (ID) TV "Phantom Killer of the Opera" (2017) documenting her life, and final days.
"When 31-year-old violinist Helen Mintiks goes missing during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, all of New York is terrified. Then she was discovered in an airshaft at the Met."
Helen was a gifted violinist.
Helen, the youngest of three sisters, was born to Finnish immigrants and grew up on a poultry farm in the tiny community of Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada. She began studying violin at age 8 and traveled weekly with one of her parents 76 miles to Vancouver to study violin with Douglas Stewart. While still a teenager, she served as concertmaster of the Vancouver Junior Philamonic, and a soloist with the Seattle Symphony.
She left Canada at age 19 to study at the renown Julliard School in Manhattan. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees there. While working as a counselor one summer at a camp near Montreal, she met Janis Mintiks, whom she married in 1976.
Helen studied and performed in Italy and Switzerland. She returned to New York in 1975 when the celebrated violinist Nathan Milstein agreed to take her on as a student. She became established as a very talented and dedicated violinist who worked free-lance and was in the first call category. She was performing with the Berlin Ballet at the famed Metropolitan Opera House in New York when she was murdered.
Sources: news reports in multiple newspapers.
Note: She was a victim of homicide. There is an episode of "The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade" on Investigation Discovery (ID) TV "Phantom Killer of the Opera" (2017) documenting her life, and final days.
"When 31-year-old violinist Helen Mintiks goes missing during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, all of New York is terrified. Then she was discovered in an airshaft at the Met."
Helen, the youngest of three sisters, was born to Finnish immigrants and grew up on a poultry farm in the tiny community of Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada. She began studying violin at age 8 and traveled weekly with one of her parents 76 miles to Vancouver to study violin with Douglas Stewart. While still a teenager, she served as concertmaster of the Vancouver Junior Philamonic, and a soloist with the Seattle Symphony.
She left Canada at age 19 to study at the renown Julliard School in Manhattan. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees there. While working as a counselor one summer at a camp near Montreal, she met Janis Mintiks, whom she married in 1976.
Helen studied and performed in Italy and Switzerland. She returned to New York in 1975 when the celebrated violinist Nathan Milstein agreed to take her on as a student. She became established as a very talented and dedicated violinist who worked free-lance and was in the first call category. She was performing with the Berlin Ballet at the famed Metropolitan Opera House in New York when she was murdered.
Sources: news reports in multiple newspapers.
Note: She was a victim of homicide. There is an episode of "The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade" on Investigation Discovery (ID) TV "Phantom Killer of the Opera" (2017) documenting her life, and final days.
"When 31-year-old violinist Helen Mintiks goes missing during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, all of New York is terrified. Then she was discovered in an airshaft at the Met."
