Sad death of NY PR
RIPWe have been informed of the death this weekend of Helene Kamioner, a highly effective publicist who, among other achievements, put Bavarian State Opera on the American media map.
Helene was 72. The funeral was in New Jersey on Sunday.
Helene had received an advanced cancer diagnosis late last year but was confident recently that she was in remission and was busy making plans for 2024 and beyond. She could be over-persistent, but she was never a time-waster and knew how to take No for an answer. Among the coterie of West Coast PRs and their tame hacks, she was something of an outlier, always looking for new outlets.
A Munich-born child of Polish Holocaust survivors, Helene had ambitions to be a performer but settled for an auxiliary role. Latterly she spent time tracing her parents’ survival routes.
Helene is survived by her brother Henry and his family.
May her memory be blessed.
Every word you wrote I can support!Helen worked for us exzellently with our TURANDOT opera in Beijing , Forbidden City 1998! I am sad because I still had a nice chat with her 3 weeks ago! R.I.P. Helen!!
Thank you for letting us know!!
Michael Ecker Executive Producer
Opera-On-Original Site .
Very distressing… I had an email from her just 3-4 days ago.
That 1998 Turandot excellently directed by Zhang Yimou and conducted by Mehta with Florence Opera forces was a magical if expensive evening.
Sad to hear. BD”H. Enjoyed her thoughtful posts on this website in particular her defense of Israel and all things Jewish, in response to the disheartening number of Anti-Semites who post on this site.
Her strongly formulated posts were always stimulating. I’ll miss her presence on this site.
I don’t understand the reference to the “coterie of West Coast PRs”, since she was apparently based on the East Coast. Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
Polish Holocaust?
German nazi Holocaust!