Helen Charlston

Helen Charlston’s ability to make each performance completely her own and her depth of connection with audiences has earned her international acclaim as “one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” (Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone). She was recently a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2021-23) and was the 2023 Gramophone Award winner for Best Concept Album and also collected the Vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for her second album: Battle Cry: the only recording that year to win at both ceremonies. Her much anticipated next solo album A Poet’s Love will be released on BIS Records in 2026.

In the 25/26 season, Helen makes her debut at Dutch National Opera in the world premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Theory of Flames in the role of Marianne. On the concert platform she sings the title role in Solomon with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mozart Requiem at Casa da Musica under Andreas Spering and also the Czech Philharmonic under Giovanni Antonini, Bach B minor mass with De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Richard Egarr, and also The Bach Choir with David Hill, and Bach St Matthew Passion with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Laurence Cummings. In recital she collaborates with the Consone Quartet at the Brighton Early Music Festival and also at Oxford Song, with Sholto Kynoch at the Wimbledon Festival and Leeds Song amongst other venues, with Roman Rabinovich in Canada, and she debuts at Fundación Juan March in Madrid with Sounds Baroque. She also makes her debut at the Aldeburgh Festival with Britten Sinfonia, in a new programme curated by Helen, that celebrates the 50 years since the first performance of Britten Phaedra.

Recent opera appearances have included her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Sesto in Calixto Bieito’s production of Giulio Cesare conducted by William Christie, her debut at Versailles Royal Opera singing Dido in Purcell Dido & Aeneas, at Grange Festival singing Sorceress/Spirit in the same opera, and she covered the title role in Charpentier Médée at Opéra national de Paris. She has also toured two semi-staged productions with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie singing Dido and Rosmira in Handel Partenope across France and Canada.

Further appearances on the concert platform have included premieres of a new song cycle written for her as a companion piece to Schumann Dichterliebe by Héloïse Werner at the Oxford International Song Festival and Wigmore Hall, Bach B minor mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the BBC Proms with Maxim Emelyanychev, Britten’s Phaedra live in concert with BBC Philharmonic, Handel's Messiah with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Proms, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Berlin Philharmonie with Justin Doyle, and also Bach’s Magnificat in South Korea, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with WDR Köln under Simon Halsey, Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer with BBC Philharmonic, Elgar Sea Pictures and Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Irene in Handel Theodora with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.

As artistic advisor for York Early Music Festival, Helen featured in a residency in 2024 performing a wide range of music by Dowland and Couperin, to Schumann and Mendelssohn, and a set of new commissions for her and Toby Carr by Ben Rowarth and Anna Semple.

The RDMR contact for this client is Grace.