Helen Charlston & Emma Abbate

Women in Song

Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano

Emma Abbate, piano

Repertoire including:-

Haydn: Arianna a Naxos

Robert Schumann: Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135

Clara Schumann: Various 

Claude Debussy: Trois Chansons de Bilitis

Madeleine Dring: From Seven Shakespeare Songs

Helen Charlston won first prize in the 2018 London Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the 2019 Grange Festival International Singing Competition. She won the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize in the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and is a BBC New Generation Artist. Helen was a founder participant of the Rising Star of the Enlightenment programme, working alongside the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She is a member of Les Arts Florissants Young Artist Programme (Jardin des Voix) for 2021/22; and is a 2018 City Music Foundation Artist.

Described as 'an amazingly talented pianist' by Musica, Emma Abbate performs with many of the leading singers and instrumentalists of her generation. Based in London, Emma is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a staff coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and has taught at the Verbier Festival Academy. Following her graduation from the St. Pietro a Majella Conservatoire in Naples and an Advanced Diploma from the Sta. Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, Emma completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, from where she graduated with distinction. She has been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her ‘significant contribution’ thus far to the music profession.