Red Door Duo - Rural Musicians Forum

Red Door Duo

Red Door Duo is Helen Avakian and Dave Irwin, partners in life and music. They perform an exciting array of acoustic guitar based music ranging from captivating original songs and instrumentals to arrangements of classics by JS Bach and George Gershwin. Based in Mineral Point, Red Door Duo has been performing in the Madison area for the last 7 years upon Helen’s arrival to the area from New York. They have been featured at the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas, as well as a variety of venues from the midwest to the east coast.

Helen is the 2014 International Fingerstyle Guitar Champion, and the first female to win this prestigious competition. In addition, Helen was voted Favorite Acoustic Act four times by Rhythm and News magazine,and her songwriting awards include eight first prizes from the NewSongs Contest at the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas. Helen had the honor of having her guitar and vocals featured on Pete Seeger’s Grammy-nominated final album of his life, The Storm King. 

Dave Irwin is a long time well-known guitarist in Madison, WI. He specializes in fingerstyle, Brazilian and jazz guitar. He was the house guitarist at Samba Brazilian Grill in Madison for a number of years, is regularly featured in the Brazilian Carnaval festival at Madison’s Majestic Theatre, and he has performed his solo guitar arrangement of The National Anthem on ESPN, and at the Kohl Center for Badgers games and the World Olympic Style Wrestling Competition-Team USA.

Visit us at: HelenAvakian.com

Red Door Duo will be performing on August 2, 2021 at 7:30PM