Helen returns to the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford to give the premiere of Bob Chilcott’s Mass in Time of War with the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir and Samuel Hudson.

THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL | Hereford

Chilcott, Bach, Tavener

Hereford Cathedral, 28th July 19:30

TICKETS

Spend a morning in paradise with Helen and Toby Carr on Lute in the atmospheric acoustics of Duns Parish Church.

PAXTON FESTIVAL | Garden of Eden

Purcell, Strozzi, Charpentier

Duns Parish Church, 24th July, 11:30

TICKETS

Joined by Sholto Kynoch on piano, Helen returns to Paxton Festival.

PAXTON FESTIVAL | Notes of Old

Schubert, Bach, Viardot, Ravel, Schumann

Paxton House, 23rd July, 19:30

TICKETS

“…Fine singing, powerful stage presence… Coups de théâtre in a well-constructed programme”

Inspired by the vivid music of Purcell, Charpentier, Stozzi and Monteverdi, this programme is specially curated for the glorious surroundings of the Merchant Adventurers Hall and showcases the premiere of a 2025 NCEM commission from composer Anna Disley-Simpson.

YORK EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL | Heaven & Hell

Purcell, Strozzi, Charpentier, Anna Disley-Simpson

Merchant Adventurer’s Hall, 9th July 18:30

TICKETS

Helen joins Fretwork viol consort to open the 2025 York Early Music Festival in an evening of tribute to Orlando Gibbons, who died 400 years ago this year.

YORK EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL | My Days: Songs and Fantasias by Orlando Gibbons

Gibbons, Nico Muhly

Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, 19:30

TICKETS

Joined by Sholto Kynoch on piano, Helen performs her Knight’s Dream programme at SongEasel festival in South East London.

KNIGHT’S DREAM | SongEasel

Schumann Dichterliebe, Heloise Werner Knights Dream

St Matthew’s Church, Elephant and Castle, 19:30

TICKETS

Helen makes her debut at the Smetana Litomysl Festival with Prague Philharmonis and Lukáš Vasilek to perform Honegger’s Le Roi David.

SMETANA LITOMYSL | Czechia

Castle Courtyard, 15th June 19:30

TICKETS

Joined by Sholto Kynoch on piano, Helen makes her debut at LIFE Victoria Barcelona

NOTES OF OLD | Barcelona

Schubert, Bach, Viardot, Ravel, Schumann

Sala Domènech i Montaner – Sant Pau Recinte Modernista, 20:00

Tickets available from LIFE Victoria Barcelona

“…Fine singing, powerful stage presence.. Coups de théâtre in a well-constructed programme”

Joining the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Peter Whelan, Helen returns to the London Handel Festival to sing Piacere in Handel Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno HWV 46a.

Bellezza Hilary Cronin

Piacere Helen Charlston

Disinganno Jess Dandy

Tempo James Way 

Conductor Peter Whelan 

Irish Baroque Orchestra 

19th March 2025, 7pm

Tickets from London Handel Festival

In their debut European performance as a duo, Helen and lutenist Toby Carr share their awards-winning Battle Cry programme at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria. Featured as part of the Rising Stars scheme at the concert hall, they share an extended version of this programme celebrating the exceptional vocal writing of Barbara Strozzi alongside the Austrian premiere of Owain Park’s 2021 City Music Foundation Commission: Battle Cry.

15th March 2025, 7.30pm

Brucknerhaus, Linz

Tickets now available

Telemann forged a lasting friendship with Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 1700s and stood as godfather to Bach’s second surviving son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Florilegium and Helen Charlston trace the points of connection and departure preserved within their music.

Helen joins Florilegium and director Ashley Solomon to perform two heartfelt cantatas. Telemann’s Ihr Völker hört and Bach’s much loved Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust BWV170.

11th March 2025, 7.30pm

Wigmore Hall, London

Tickets from Wigmore Hall

Following their wins at the 2023 BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards, Helen and lutenist Toby Carr return to Battle Cry in this lunchtime concert at Wigmore Hall.

7th March 2025, 1pm

Wigmore Hall London

Tickets from Wigmore Hall

Having recorded this seminal work in 2024, Helen reunites with Emilio Gonzalez Toro and Ensemble I Gemelli to performance Monteverdi’s Vespers at at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona.

17th February 2025, 8pm

Tickets from the Palau de la Musica

Having recorded this seminal work in 2024, Helen reunites with Emilio Gonzalez Toro and Ensemble I Gemelli to performance Monteverdi’s Vespers at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

15th February 2025, 2.15pm

Tickets from the Concertgebouw

Helen joins Adrian Butterfield and the London Handel Players for a performance of Bach’s great Mass in B minor.

London Handel Players; Adrian Butterfield director;

Zoë Brookshaw soprano; Jessica Cale soprano;

Daniel Taylor alto; Helen Charlston alto;

Charles Daniels tenor; Samuel Boden tenor;

Ashley Riches bass; Florian Störtz bass

3rd February 2025, 7.30pm

Wigmore Hall London

Tickets from Wigmore Hall

Helen finishes her run up to Christmas by joining John Butt and Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall for an evening of unexpected Christmas stories. Christmas music isn't all about trumpets, drums, and heavenly hosts. Baroque composers were equally interested in the shepherds and the stable and Arcangelo Corelli's evocation of the straw and lowing cattle is perhaps the most famous of them all. In using the concerto Grosso form, he was both picking up on Alessandro Stradella's structural innovation and inspiring Pietro Locatelli in his own Christmas scene.

Stradella also contributes a Nativity cantata with a twist: the first character to appear is Satan! Caroline Shaw, herself a string player and singer, will draw these threads of virtuoso strings and singers together in her second commission for Dunedin Consort.

23rd December 2024, 7.30pm

Wigmore Hall London

Tickets from Dunedin Consort

In the final of their short tour of this Christmas fabourite, Helen joins John Butt and the Dunedin Consort for a performance of Handel Messiah at DeSingel in Antwerp.

21st December 2024, 8pm

DeSingel, Antwerp

Tickets via Dunedin Consort

Helen joins John Butt and the Dunedin Consort for the annual performances of Handel Messiah in Edinburgh at The Queen’s Hall. This concert is preceded by a Children’s Messiah at 4pm which is also presented with British Sign Language interpretation throughout.

18th December 2024, 7pm

The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

Tickets via Dunedin Consort

Helen joins John Butt and the Dunedin Consort for the annual performances of Handel Messiah in Glasgow at St Aloysius’ Church. This concert is preceded by a Children’s Messiah at 4pm, and both events are presented with British Sign Language interpretation throughout.

17th December 2024, 7pm

St Aloysius’ Church, Glasgow

Tickets via Dunedin Consort

Helen joins Simon Halsey and the WDR Runkfunchor in Cologne to perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248 (Kantaten I-III)

Julia Duscher Soprano

Helen Charlston Mezzosoprano

Kieran Carrel Tenor

Jonas Müller Bass

Simon Halsey Conductor

14th December 2024, Cologne Philharmonie, 8pm

Tickets via WDR

Soprano Katharine Hawnt
Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston
Tenor Edward Woodhouse
Baritone Tom Butler

Written in 1734, the Christmas Oratorio is among Bach’s most joyous music and celebrates the whole Christmas period: from the birth of Christ to the visit of the Three Kings, each event has its own cantata, which together create one of Bach’s great masterpieces. With festive choruses, some wonderful solo instrumental and vocal music and, of course, Baroque trumpets, what better way to start your Christmas celebrations?

Saturday 30 November 2024 at 7:30pm

Sherborne Abbey

Tickets from Sherborne Chamber Choir

Václav Luks Conductor
Julia Doyle Soprano
Helen Charlston Mezzo Soprano
Robin Tritschler Tenor
Florian Störtz Bass Baritone
SCO Chorus
Gregory Batsleer Chorus Director

Celebrate the coming festivities with one of music’s most uplifting seasonal creations. Originally conceived for Leipzig’s Christmas celebrations in 1734, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio retains all its joy and colour nearly three centuries later, in vivid musical depictions of the Nativity and the Shepherds’ adoration. The Oratorio’s resplendent choruses and intimate solo arias continue to inspire and delight today, whatever your personal beliefs.

29th November, 7:30pm

City Halls, Glasgow

Tickets from SCO

Václav Luks Conductor
Julia Doyle Soprano
Helen Charlston Mezzo Soprano
Robin Tritschler Tenor
Florian Störtz Bass Baritone
SCO Chorus
Gregory Batsleer Chorus Director

Celebrate the coming festivities with one of music’s most uplifting seasonal creations. Originally conceived for Leipzig’s Christmas celebrations in 1734, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio retains all its joy and colour nearly three centuries later, in vivid musical depictions of the Nativity and the Shepherds’ adoration. The Oratorio’s resplendent choruses and intimate solo arias continue to inspire and delight today, whatever your personal beliefs.

28th November, 7:30pm

Queens Hall, Edinburgh

Tickets from SCO

Helen joins RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin on tour to South Korea, performing Bach Magnificat in D and Handel Dixi Dominus at Seoul Arts Centre, conducted by Justin Doyle.

Seoul Arts Centre, 24th November 2024

Tickets from Seoul Arts Centre

Helen joins RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin on tour to South Korea, in a performance of Bach Magnificat & Handel’s Dixit Dominus at Seoul Arts Centre conducted by Justin Doyle.

Seoul Arts Centre, 23rd November 2024

Tickets from Seoul Arts Centre

 St Albans Choral Society return to the Abbey with a concert featuring spiritually uplifting French masterpieces by Duruflé and Poulenc alongside Bach’s exciting and energetic Baroque masterpiece, composed in 1723 for the people of Leipzig.

J S Bach Magnificat in D, BWV243

Poulenc Organ Concerto

Duruflé Requiem, Op 9

 Elinor Rolfe Johnson soprano ꞏ Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano ꞏ Bradley Smith tenor ꞏ Alexander Ashworth bass-baritone

Tom Winpenny organ ꞏ St Albans Choral Society ꞏ Orchestra Nova ꞏ George Vass conductor

16th November, 2024 at 7:30pm

St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, AL1 1BY

Tickets from St Albans Choral Society

Seeking a strong man to deliver the tribe from an existential threat, the Israelites choose the outcast son of a harlot, Jephtha, to lead them into battle against the Ammonites. Having made a vow to God that if he is victorious he will offer in sacrifice the first thing he sees on returning home, rejoicing is turned to tragedy when it is his daughter who greets him. Jephtha faces the ultimate dilemma – the choice between faith and love, in Handel’s final dramatic oratorio.

Academy Choir & Baroque Players

Matthew Best, Conductor

Benjamin Hulett, Jephtha

Helen Charlston, Storge

Rowan Pierce, Iphis

James Hall, Hamor

November 9th 2024, 8pm

Sacred Heart Church, Edge Hill, Wimbledon SW19 4LU

Tickets from Wimbledon International Festival

Joined by Sholto Kynoch on piano, Helen makes her first appearance in Flamstead as part of the new Music at St Leonard’s Series. They perform their new song recital programme: ‘Notes of Old’ which celebrates the many different genres of Helen’s music making, drawing lines of connection across the centuries from Monteverdi and Charpentier, to Schubert and Schumann, and new songs by Anna Semple.

St Leonards Flamstead, Flamstead, AL3 8BS

Fri 8th November 2024, 7.30PM

Tickets from Music at St Leonard’s

Helen Charlston, winner of the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award, gave a memorable performance at last year’s Festival, described as ‘sensational’ and awarded five stars by The Observer. For the first part of this recital, she and pianist Sholto Kynoch weave together music from across the centuries, juxtaposing works from the Baroque with Romantic and contemporary songs. Music by Bach, Monteverdi and Sweelinck resonates in unexpected ways with songs by Schubert, Hahn, Anna Semple and others, highlighting the enduring tapestry of human experience that transcends temporal boundaries! The pair then perform Schumann’s Kerner Lieder, an extraordinary cycle of songs that also owes much to music of the past.

Holywell Music Room, 7.30pm

Friday 25th October 2024

Tickets from Oxford International Song Festival