Helen Charlston

Mezzo-soprano 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.

She was a member of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme in 2021-23 during which time she made her BBC Proms debut in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; and was an inaugural 'Rising Star' of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2017-19. Helen won awards from both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine in 2023 for her debut album, Battle Cry, with theorbo player Toby Carr. This May brought the release of her most recent album A Poet's Love with pianist Sholto Kynoch, to widespread critical acclaim.

In 2025/26, Helen made her debut at Dutch National Opera in the rold of Marianne in the world premiere of Michel van der Aa's Theory of Flames. Her concert engagements have included Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with Philharmonie Luxembourg and John Eliot Gardiner, Britten's Phaedra with the Britten Sinfonia at the Aldeburgh Festival and singing Elgar with BBCSO in the last live broadcast from Maida Vale on Radio 3. She toured the title-role in Handel's Solomon  with the OAE, sang Mozart Requiem at the Casa da Música in Porto under Andreas Spering and with the Czech Philharmonic under Giovanni Antonini, Bach Mass in B minor with the Netherlands Bach Society and Richard Egarr and St Matthew Passion with the Dresden Philharmonic and Antwerp Symphony Orchestras. In recital she performed at Fundación Juan March in Madrid, Festival van Vlaanderen Antwerpen, Wigmore Hall, Oxford Song and Leeds Song, amongst many other festivals.

Updated August 2026