Héloïse Werner by Raphaël Neal, July 2023
“Héloïse Werner should be a name on the lips of any musical adventurer. (…) This young soprano-composer – and cellist too – is a one-off, who can transform a tiny fragment of song into a mesmerising drama. It’s as if her whole being is double-jointed. Her beautiful voice can flip itself from long-lined lyricism into a battery of percussive instruments: trilling her tongue at jet-propeller speed, turning a simple vowel sound into a complex expression of love or anguish, with a lexicon of facial expressions to match.” Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
“lt is hard not to be in awe of Héloise Werner: a soprano of extraordinary range, tone and vocal abilities, possessing a seemingly inexhaustible expressive range (…)  composer of subtle imagination” Gramophone Magazine (debut album Phrases) 
“quickly becoming a latter-day Cathy Berberian or Meredith Monk (…) virtuoso entertainment like this is welcome any time” Richard Morrison, The Times (solo opera The Other Side of the Sea)
“I was particularly struck by (…) as well as the intensity of the young soprano Héloïse Werner” The Times 
“the excellent Héloïse Werner as Perdita” Evening Standard
“the hyper-versatile Héloïse Werner, who makes every word audible without recourse to texts” The Observer 
“the vivacious soprano voice of Héloïse Werner, who pounces on individual notes and words with a tiger’s tenacity and a kitten’s glee” The Times 
its exacting vocal lines were delivered with considerable intensity by soprano Héloïse Werner” The Guardian 
“Héloïse Werner offered more evidence of her extraordinary avant-garde vocal skills” The Times 
“projected with wry wit by soprano Héloïse Werner” Evening Standard
“a brilliant and acrobatic vocalist” The Telegraph
“an amazingly versatile soprano” The Times 

Héloïse’s debut album ‘Phrases’ is out now on Delphian Records: Sunday Times 10 Best Classical Records of 2022,  Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice (“extraordinary range, tone and vocal abilities (…) composer of subtle imagination”), Presto Classical Editor’s Choice (“absolute tour de force”), BBC Music Magazine Choral/Song Choice (*****), Classical album of the week in The Times (****) and described by Apple Music as “a staggering debut from an imaginative and original voice”. Her second album ‘Close-Ups’ in June 2024 on Delphian Records, generously supported by PRS Foundation.

Recipient of the Michael Cuddigan Trust Award 2018 and Linda Hirst Contemporary Vocal Prize 2017, French-born and London-based soprano and composer Héloïse Werner was one of the four shortlisted nominees in the Young Artist category of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards 2017 and one of BBC Radio 3’s 31 under 31 Young Stars 2020.  From the 2023/24 season, she joins London’s Wigmore Hall as an Associate Artist. She will hold the position for five seasons and appear at the hall at least once a year during the period. She begins this journey on 2 March 2024 in a concert with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, harpist Anne Denholm and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.

As a soprano, Héloïse has recently made her debut with the London Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, CBSO, Nash Ensemble, The Grange Festival, and sang the role of Madame DuVal in Sarah Angliss’ new opera Giant opening the Aldeburgh Festival 2023.

As a composer, Héloïse has written for the CBSO, Aurora Orchestra, Clare Choir Cambridge, Maîtrise de Radio France, London Handel Festival, violist Lawrence Power, bassoonist Amy Harman, violinist Hae-Sun Kang (Festival Présences), pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen (Lucerne Festival), CoMA (CoMA Festival), The Gesualdo Six, The Bach Choir, mezzo-soprano Marielou Jacquard, pianist Kunal Lahiry and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, amongst others. A selected list of her works is available here.

In 2019, Héloïse performed her solo opera The Other Side of the Sea at Kings Place as part of their Venus Unwrapped series  (“you can’t help but be dazzled by it” **** The Times).  Written in collaboration with poet Octavia Bright, director Emily Burns and visual artist Jessie Rodger, the opera explores language and identity. It was first premiered in London & Aldeburgh in 2018, with generous support from The Michael Cuddigan Trust, and developed in 2017 during a Snape Maltings residency under the mentorship of Zoë Martlew. In 2016, Héloïse starred in Jonathan Woolgar’s acclaimed one-woman opera Scenes from the End at London’s Tristan Bates Theatre, following on from successful runs at the Camden and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.

Héloïse is also soprano for contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment (soprano, clarinet, harp and double bass). They won the RPS Young Artist Award 2021 and the Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble regularly commissions new works (over 60 to date), as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. They have released two albums, both on Delphian Records, to critical acclaim –  HERE WE ARE  (Presto Classical Recording of the Year, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, The Guardian’s 10 Best Contemporary Albums of 2020) and SONG  (Gramophone Editor’s Choice).

Héloïse was born in Paris and was a member of the ‘Maîtrise de Radio France’ for six years. At the same time, she studied the cello at the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel with Valérie Aimard. She then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was a choral scholar. At Cambridge, she studied composition with Giles Swayne and won the 2011 Clare College Carol Competition. In 2009, she was awarded the ‘Creation Prize’ from the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel for her songs for piano and voice, which she performed as part of her cello final diploma. She completed her vocal studies with Alison Wells and coach Anna Tilbrook on the MMus course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance as a Linda Pilgrim Charitable Trust Scholar and a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award holder.