Former BBC New Generation Artists mezzo soprano Helen Charlston & Consone Quartet come together for an evening of storytelling, celebrating chamber music making in all its glory.

As we journey through the intimate world of song, let Robert Schumann’s beguiling Frauenliebe und -leben, Clara Schumann’s evocative Op.13 and songs by Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn whisk you into a world of romanticism. Presented in new arrangements for Period String Quartet and Voice (rather than voice and piano as one might expect) the intimacy and directness of chamber music is the centre of this story, transporting us all to a new world of life and love.

Tickets available from London Festival of Baroque Music

Friday 17th May 2024, 7pm

Multi award-winning BBC New Generation Artist Helen Charlston is joined by pianist Sholto Kynoch for a performance of Schumann’s masterful song cycle Dichterliebe, a pinnacle of the song repertoire. Alongside this they perform songs by Schumann’s contemporaries, including Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, as well as a thrilling new work by Héloïse Werner, Knight’s Dream, commissioned in 2023 by BBC Radio 3 as a companion piece to Dichterliebe.

Tickets from Mayfield Festival

Wednesday 1st May 2024, 7.30pm

St Dunstan’s Church, Mayfield

“Her radiant expressiveness reached its peak in Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op 48, Heine’s romantic journey through bliss and disillusion towards apparent resignation and resolution. With supremely sensitive playing from Kynoch, Charlston made us struggle with her over all these emotional hurdles in a superb performance, both exhausting and elating.”

Stephen Pritchard, The Observer*****

English art song saw a rich renaissance in the early years of the 20th century, continuing between the wars.

This programme draws on a treasury of the finest songs of Vaughan Williams, Roger Quilter, George Butterworth, Ivor Gurney, Peter Warlock, Gerald Finzi and Benjamin Britten.

Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano

Alessandro Fisher, tenor

Sholto Kynoch, piano

St John's Church, Wimbledon, SW19 4NZ, 7.30pm

Tickets available from Wimbledon International Festival

In honour of their recently released CD of music by William Byrd “flawlessly sung by the mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, the whole thing is beautifully done” (The Guardian), Helen joins Chelys Consort of Viols in a concert performance of this repertoire in this Byrd’s 450th anniversary year.

Tickets from Leamington Music

Helen joins Joseph Middleton for a lunchtime concert at Wesley Centre Concerts in Harrogate, with music by Mahler, Hensel, Ireland, Bridge and Nathan James Dearden.

Wesley Centre Concerts 2023-24

Oxford Street, Harrogate HG1 1PP

Lunchtime Recitals (Mondays at 1pm, Admission £10)

Following on from the success of their recording of John Eccles’ Semele, Cambridge Handel Opera Company and Academy of Ancient Music come together to present another English operatic masterpiece: John Weldon’s The Judgement of Paris.

The libretto was itself designed for a contest, a musical one, with cash prizes, handsomely sponsored by a group of aristocrats. John Weldon, organist of New College Oxford, was the youngest finalist. Unexpectedly, his setting – which improves on Congreve’s libretto ­– won first place in the ‘Musick Prize’, triumphing over the more conservative submissions by the three older and more experienced finalists, John Eccles, Daniel Purcell, and Gottfried Finger.

Anna Dennis Venus / Kitty Whately Pallas /Helen Charlston Juno

Thomas Walker Mercury / Jonathan Brown Paris

Anna Cavaliero Attendant 1 /Aksel Rykkvin Attendant 2

Academy of Ancient Music / Julian Perkins director

Tickets now available

BBC New Generation Artists on Monday Lunchtime

When writing his 1840 song cycle Dichterliebe Robert Schumann turned to Heinrich Heine’s book of poetry, the Lyrisches Intermezzo, to choose his text to set to music. This book contains 64 poems, many of which are very direct and concise, often comprising just 8 lines of text. Schumann picked 16 gems that became his song cycle that forms the centre of this programme.

As a prelude to the cycle, we return to the Lyrisches Intermezzo to explore some of the poems left behind. In settings by Schumann’s 19th century contemporaries: Hensel, Loewe, Mendelssohn and Lang, we celebrate Heine’s poetry and bring it into the 21st century with a new BBC Radio 3 commission by Héloïse Werner.

Helen Charlston (Mezzo Soprano) & Sholto Kynoch (Piano)

“Magical – Charlston’s feeling for a phrase’s shape never wavers… Kynoch has the ability to nail the opening mood of a song, something he absolutely achieved in the light first bars of Ständchen. Charlston told the story beautifully… a masterclass of legato from both.”

(Seen and Heard International, March 2023)

Also broadcast LIVE on BBC Radio 3

Tickets available from Wigmore Hall

Helen and Toby Carr give a lunchtime concert as part of the first full BREMF since 2019. They share their Battle Cry programme, as featured on their Delphian Records CD of the same name, which recently won the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award.

Saturday 21st October 2023 / St Nicholas Church, Brighton

“These characters come alive in Charlston’s flexible mezzo, surely one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” Gramophone

TICKETS available direct from BREMF

When writing his 1840 song cycle Dichterliebe Robert Schumann turned to Heinrich Heine’s book of poetry, the Lyrisches Intermezzo, to choose his text to set to music. This book contains 64 poems, many of which are very direct and concise, often comprising just 8 lines of text. Schumann picked 16 gems that became his song cycle that forms the centre of this programme.

As a prelude to the cycle, we return to the Lyrisches Intermezzo to explore some of the poems left behind. In settings by Schumann’s 19th century contemporaries: Hensel, Loewe, Mendelssohn and Lang, we celebrate Heine’s poetry and bring it into the 21st century with a new BBC Radio 3 commission by Héloïse Werner, which receives it’s world premiere today.

Helen Charlston (Mezzo Soprano) & Sholto Kynoch (Piano)

“Magical – Charlston’s feeling for a phrase’s shape never wavers… Kynoch has the ability to nail the opening mood of a song, something he absolutely achieved in the light first bars of Ständchen. Charlston told the story beautifully… a masterclass of legato from both.”

(Seen and Heard International, March 2022)

Holywell Music Room, Oxford

16th October 2023, 1pm

Tickets available from Oxford International Song Festival

Helen and Sholto Kynoch return to Royal Holloway University’s exquisite picture gallery for a programme culminating in Schumann’s Dichterliebe.

5th October 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets available from Royal Holloway

Helen joins Shipston Song Festival director, Ian Tindale for an evening of song that explores both the consolation and isolation that can be found in the natural world around us.

Lieder, Op.10 - Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

Songs - Wilhelm Stenhammar

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen - Gustav Mahler

Lieder by Clara Schumann and Alma Schindler-Mahler

Songs from ‘The Isolation Songbook’ by Joshua Borin and Richard Barnard

Songs, Op.44 - Amy Beach 

Music for wandering: Mahler’s celebrated Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen is the focal point for this programme immersed in isolation and solitude from BBC New Generation Artist Helen Charlston. Evocative atmospheres from Sweden, lyrical songs by Fanny Hensel and Clara Schumann,  plus works by Mahler’s wife Alma complete the programme alongside new works commissioned by Helen for her celebrated ‘Isolation Songbook’ project. Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and ‘warmly distinctive tone’ (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers.

Tickets from eventbrite

… more information about the whole festival can be found here.

Come and Sing Mendlessohn’s Elijah

Helen joins Choir of the Earth on the final day of their Come and Sing course, preparing Mendelssohn’s Elijah in this performance at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square.

Lucy Cox, Soprano

Helen Charlston, Mezzo-soprano

Thomas Kelly, Tenor

Ashley Riches, Bass-Baritone

Ben England, Conductor

Tickets available (for both the concert and the singing course) from Labrador Events

PROM 19 at The Royal Albert Hall

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra presents one of the most popular works in the British choral repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Full of earthquakes and hurricanes, fiery chariots, wicked queens and holy visions, this intensely dramatic oratorio is brought to life by the SCO’s exciting young Music Director Maxim Emelyanychev alongside soloists Roderick Williams, Carolyn Sampson, Andrew Staples and Helen Charlston.

Saturday 29th July 2023, 6.30pm (note start time)

Also broadcast LIVE on BBC Radio 3

Tickets and more information available from BBC Proms

“Lyricism and restraint: key words for a great Dido in the making.” (Loïc Chahine, Diapason)

Helen joins Les Arts Florissants to sing Dido in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the Festival international d'opéra baroque de Beaune. This concert performance will be semi-staged, directed by Sophie Daneman.

Helen Charlston, Dido

Renato Dolcini, Aeneas / Sorceress

Ana Vieira Leite, Belinda

Maud Gnidzaz, First Witch

Virginie Thomas, Second Witch, Second Woman

Jacob Lawrence, Sailor

Michael Loughlin Smith, Spirit

William Christie, Musical Director

Tickets available from the festival.

“Lyricism and restraint: key words for a great Dido in the making.” (Loïc Chahine, Diapason)

Helen joins Les Arts Florissants to sing Dido in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the Festival 2023 of the Abbey of Saint-Michel in Thiérache. This concert performance will be semi-staged, directed by Sophie Daneman.

Helen Charlston, Dido

Renato Dolcini, Aeneas / Sorceress

Ana Vieira Leite, Belinda

Maud Gnidzaz, First Witch

Virginie Thomas, Second Witch, Second Woman

Jacob Lawrence, Sailor

Michael Loughlin Smith, Spirit

William Christie, Musical Director

Tickets available from the festival.

“Lyricism and restraint: key words for a great Dido in the making.” (Loïc Chahine, Diapason)

Helen joins Les Arts Florissants to sing Dido in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the Festival de Saintes. This concert performance will be semi-staged, directed by Sophie Daneman.

Helen Charlston, Dido

Renato Dolcini, Aeneas / Sorceress

Ana Vieira Leite, Belinda

Maud Gnidzaz, First Witch

Virginie Thomas, Second Witch, Second Woman

Jacob Lawrence, Sailor

Michael Loughlin Smith, Spirit

William Christie, Musical Director

Tickets available from the festival.

The laureates of the 2021 Jardin des Voix head to Canada to reprise their production of Handel Partenope, Handel's first "comic" opera, in which the composer breaks free from the rules of opera seria.

At the court of Partenope, Queen of Naples, there is no shortage of suitors trying to win her heart: Arsace, Prince of Corinth, seems to have won her favor, while the Prince of Rhodes, Armindo, is desperate. But it is to count without the importunate arrival of Emilio, king of Cumes, who claims that he is going to conquer the beautiful queen with weapons. Whereas Partenope seeks council near the captain Ormonte, the climate of tension intensifies by the presence of a certain Eurimene... which is not other than the princess Rosmira: she is in love with Arsace, who has forsaken her, and comes to seek revenge under this disguise. When he challenges her to a duel and asks her to fight bare-chested, the time comes to drop the masks...

Ana Vieira Leite, Partenope

Hugh Cutting, Arsace

Alberto Miguélez Rouco, Armindo

Helen Charlston, Rosmira / Eurimene

Matthieu Walendzik, Ormonte

William Christie, direction

Tickets available online

Bethany Seymour, Helen Neeves sopranos, Helen Charlston alto
Jonathan Hanley tenor, Frederick Long bass

directed by Peter Seymour

Body and Soul

Buxtehude’s beautiful Membra Jesu nostri (The Limbs of our Jesus) is considered to be the earliest Lutheran oratorio. The unusual text addresses the different parts of Christ’s crucified body: feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart, and face. Bach was a great admirer of Buxtehude, and his church-music style owed much to his influence. Jesu, meine Freude, is the longest and greatest of his six choral motets, a searching and powerful contemplation of the contrasting lives of the flesh and the spirit.

“Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, on excellent form throughout, admirably matched the strong vocalists. Overall ensemble was crisp and intuitive, tempi were well-chosen.” The Press

Tuesday 11 July 7.30pm – 9.00pm
£30.00 (£28.00 concessions | £7.00 under 35)
Venue: St Lawrence Church

Tickets available from NCEM

Enter the glorious but intimate sound-world of solo voice and theorbo with Helen and Toby Carr in a programme that lets the battle cry of women resound down the centuries. The sensations and emotions of female abandonment and lament – familiar from stories of women such as Dido and Ariadne – are re-examined in songs by 17th-century composers male and female. Owain Park’s Battle Cry considers the subject from a 21st century viewpoint, giving so-called ‘abandoned women’ a platform for their own voices in texts by Georgia Way that bring the voices of Boudicca, Philomela, Marietta and Sappho into focus, as we ask what they might say today.

“These characters come alive in Charlston’s flexible mezzo, surely one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” Gramophone

TICKETS from York Early Music Festival

The laureates of the 2021 Jardin des Voix reprise their production of Handel Partenope, Handel's first "comic" opera, in which the composer breaks free from the rules of opera seria.

At the court of Partenope, Queen of Naples, there is no shortage of suitors trying to win her heart: Arsace, Prince of Corinth, seems to have won her favor, while the Prince of Rhodes, Armindo, is desperate. But it is to count without the importunate arrival of Emilio, king of Cumes, who claims that he is going to conquer the beautiful queen with weapons. Whereas Partenope seeks council near the captain Ormonte, the climate of tension intensifies by the presence of a certain Eurimene... which is not other than the princess Rosmira: she is in love with Arsace, who has forsaken her, and comes to seek revenge under this disguise. When he challenges her to a duel and asks her to fight bare-chested, the time comes to drop the masks...

Ana Vieira Leite, Partenope

Hugh Cutting, Arsace

Alberto Miguélez Rouco, Armindo

Helen Charlston, Rosmira / Eurimene

Matthieu Walendzik, Ormonte

William Christie, direction

Tickets available online

“Lyricism and restraint: key words for a great Dido in the making.” (Loïc Chahine, Diapason)

Helen joins Les Arts Florissants to sing Dido in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the Festival 2023 of the Abbey of Saint-Michel in Thiérache. This concert performance will be semi-staged, directed by Sophie Daneman.

Helen Charlston, Dido

Renato Dolcini, Aeneas / Sorceress

Ana Vieira Leite, Belinda

Maud Gnidzaz, First Witch

Virginie Thomas, Second Witch, Second Woman

Jacob Lawrence, Sailor

Michael Loughlin Smith, Spirit

William Christie, Musical Director

Tickets available from the festival.

Helen and Toby Carr feature as the late night concert in the final week of Stour Music Festival in Kent. They share their Battle Cry programme, as featured on their Delphian Records CD of the same name, which recently won the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award.

Saturday 24th June / Boughton Aluph Church, Kent

TICKETS available direct from Stour Music

Helen and Toby close the Purbeck Arts Week Festival, with an extended version of their Battle Cry programme, looking in more detail at the music of Barbara Strozzi. The evening’s programme could easily have been called Lament, or Ohime (the Italian expression for ‘woe is me’, that will be heard more than once tonight). It’s safe to say that both Italy and England, and many nations in between, had something close to an obsession with female abandonment and lament in the 17 th century. The stories of women such as Dido and Ariadne have been told and re-told throughout history, as Greek myths and ancient tales dealt with the reality of war and high mortality rates on the women seen to be ‘left behind’ by male dominated storytelling. But does being left behind really mean being helpless, or is that just where a new adventure can start?

“These characters come alive in Charlston’s flexible mezzo, surely one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” Gramophone

Saturday 10th June / Church of St Edward, King & Martyr, Corfe Castle

TICKETs available directly from Purbeck Arts Week

Helen joins the Kensington Symphony Orchestra to sing Mahler Symphony No. 3 at Fairfield Halls in Croydon in her debut with the orchestra and this majestic piece.

TICKETS from Kensington Symphony Orchestra

Helen joinS pianist Emma Abbate to explore a world of song written by and about women. Music by Josephine Lang, Clara Schumann, Juliana Hall and Florence Price is paired with the tales of Arianna, Mary Queen of Scots in a glorious evening of song.

Pinner Parish Church, Church Lane, Harrow, HA5 3AA

Tickets available online

Following their debut CD release last year Helen and theorbo player, Toby Carr head to the Ludlow English Song Weekend to perform a programme of English music from 16th & 17th century by John Dowland, Henry Purcell and John Eccles alongside Owain Park’s enthralling song cycle Battle Cry.

Tickets from Ludlow English Song Weekend

John Dowland

I saw my lady weep

Shall I strive with words to move?

Can she excuse my wrongs?

In darkness let me dwell

Henry Purcell Oh lead me to some peaceful gloom

Robert De Visée Prélude

John Eccles Restless in Thought

Owain Park Battle Cry

John Dowland Time Stands Still

Helen returns to Wigmore Hall with Florilegium to perform Bach’s Easter Oratorio, and bring her Holy Week performances to a close. This oratorio, which began life in Leipzig in 1725 as a cantata and a decade later expanded into the more substantial work we know today.

Ashley Solomon DIRECTOR

Rowan Pierce SOPRANO

Helen Charlston MEZZO-SOPRANO

Andrew Tortise TENOR

Michael Craddock BASS

TICKETS from Wigmore Hall