Event

HELEN MANDLIN, CHANTEUSE

Helen Mandlin is a native New Yorker. She grew up in Knickerbocker Village on the Lower East Side and attended the High School of Performing Arts as a drama major. A theater major at Queens College (CUNY) she went on to graduate school, first at Bankstreet College of Education and then In 1984, at Hunter School of Social Work.

Helen taught Pre-School and Kindergarten in both public and private schools for fifteen years before becoming a psychotherapist. She worked with teenagers at a residential psychiatric facility for five years before beginning her private practice in 1987. She finished psychoanalytic training at the Contemporary Freudian Society. After twenty-five years in private practice with adults and teens, she retired in November, 2013.

Since age 4, Helen has performed as a singer/dancer/actress. She was a cabaret performer in the '70s. At that time she appeared in Taking Off, Milos Forman's first film done in English. In 2006, she returned again, writing and performing a solo act, and also, with the trio, Flashback. Currently, Helen performs with the ShowStoppers, a volunteer ensemble that sings standards at geriatric facilities throughout Manhattan. She still performs her cabaret act: So Far A Musical Memoir.

As a recording artist, Helen has recorded two CDs: Love & Again, jazz standards and The Long Drive, a fantasy song cycle composed by Melissa Shiflett. Melissa and Helen are the vocalists along with Nancy Montgomery.