Born in Los Alamos to career music educators Rollie and Harriet Heltman, Santa Fe Symphony Founder and former Executive Director Greg Heltman grew up in Santa Fe and started playing the trumpet at age nine. As a 7th grader, he began trumpet study with Gene Kuntz, former trumpeter with the Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera orchestras. Greg graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from the University of the Pacific, where he studied with Dale Fjerstad. He then moved to the New York area, where he studied with Mel Broiles of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

In 1981 he moved to Venezuela, where he taught trumpet for the famous “El Sistema” Orchestra de Juvenile program; and then to Israel, where he was a member of the Israel Sinfonietta. In 1983 he and his wife Elaine moved back home to Santa Fe, and in 1984 he founded The Santa Fe Symphony and continued as a member of the Orchestra. From 1988 to 1999, he was also an Elementary School Music Educator for the Santa Fe Public Schools.

The Santa Fe Symphony performed its first concert on September 2, 1984 at the New Mexico Museum of Art’s St. Francis Auditorium. The concert was an all-volunteer effort of the musicians, conductor, and friends who stepped forward for the cause. In addition to Greg, his former teacher Gene Kuntz (who passed away in 2021 at age 90) and his wife Pat were among the lead volunteers, managing the reception area, welcoming attendees and collecting at-the-door contributions. Gene stayed on to be The Symphony’s founding treasurer, “not that we had much money in those early days,” recalls Greg, “we didn’t even have a shoestring budget, more like a dental floss budget. We were energized by the packed house at St. Francis Auditorium and the free-will offerings which brought in $1,800—The Symphony’s founding stakehold.”

Greg retired from his 34-year position as Executive Director of the Santa Fe Symphony at the end of the 2018 season. In addition to performing on the trumpet, Greg is the Director of the Santa Fe Concert Band. He has also performed with the Stockton Symphony, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the Santa Fe Opera, and was principal trumpet and Assistant Orchestra Manager with the Hidden Valley Chamber and Opera Orchestra. The Heltmans have a son, Mark, who is in his engineering residency with the Virginia Department of Transportation.