This week’s #RAArtistinFocus is mezzo Helen Charlston. Former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and Le Jardin des Voix academy laureate with Les Arts Florissants, she makes her debut at Gran Teatre del Liceu this Sunday as Sesto in Calixto Bieito’s production of Giulio Cesare, conducted by William Christie. Find out more about her this week in our feeds.
An avid recitalist, Helen Charlston collaborates regularly with pianist Sholto Kynoch as well as Toby Carr. This season some of these programmes have taken her to the Wigmore Hall, LIFE Victoria Barcelona, Brucknerhaus Linz, SongEasel, Paxton Festival, and Oxford Song amongst others.
She is also coming to her last year in tenure as Artistic Advisor of the York Early Music Festival, this summer performing with Fretwork and also lutenist Toby Carr, which includes the premiere of a 2025 NCEM commission from composer Anna Disley-Simpson: https://ncem.co.uk/events/heaven-hell/
Next season, Helen Charlston returns to the opera stage as she creates the role of Marianne in Michel van der Aa’s world premiere of ‘Theory of Flames’ at Dutch National Opera, co-commissioned with The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet and the Bregenz Festival. This new film opera explores themes such as disinformation and conspiracy theories. Read more here: https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-opera/2025-2026/theory-of-flames
Coming up in the Autumn, Helen Charlston returns to the OAE to sing the title role in Handel’s Solomon in London and Europe, Mozart Requiem at Casa da Musica in Porto, Bach’s B minor mass across the Netherlands with De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, and she continues her collaboration with the Consone Quartet including a new recording for BIS. https://oae.co.uk/event/solomon/
