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The English soprano, Helen Groves, trained at the Royal College of Music in London where she won various prizes while studying with Heather Harper.
Helen Groves has extensive solo experience both on stage and the concert platform. She has performed in major festivals and venues across Europe: these include invitations to festivals in Utrecht (Christopher Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music), Halle (Simon Preston/Halle Festival Orchestra), Lourdes and Bruges (Jeffrey Skidmore/Ex Cathedra), as well as tours to Belgium and the Netherlands (Paul Goodwin/Academy of Ancient Music), and to Spain and Italy (Philip Pickett/New London Consort). This last tour programme was also brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
Helen Groves made her solo debut at the BBC Promenade Concerts in 1996 in a programme of Rameau and Charpentier with the St James Players under Ivor Bolton. This summer Helen was invited to sing George Frideric Handel with the St Pauls Cathedral Choir in their Tercentenary Celebrations (John Scott), Purcell at the Greenwich Festival with the Academy of Ancient Music (Paul Goodwin) and Schubert for a BBC Radio 4 live broadcast from the Buxton Festival.
Helen Groves's operatic work has included title roles in John Blow's Venus and Adonis (Milan and Palermo Festivals), G.F. Handel's Pastor Fido (London Handel Festival), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (The Grand Tour Festival, Birmingham), and Royer's Zaide. Helen also received critical acclaim in the national press for her portrayal of the evil Junon in Lully's Isis. Next year she will record the title role of Charpentier's Historia Esther with Ex Cathedra (ASV).
Her solo recordings include a disc of Dumont's Litanies de Vierges and Lambert's Lecon de Tenebres with Ensemble Dumont (Linn), Lalande's Grandes Motets and Antonio Vivaldi's Vespers (ASV), as well as regular appearances with New London Consort (Decca) and Musicians of the Globe (Philips).
In the late 1990's, Helen Groves performed in concerts with L'Orchestre Nationale de Lille at Christmas, and in 1998 G.F. Handel's Solomon with Ex Cathedra in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and broadcasts and concerts of Rameau's Pygmalion with The English Concert. |
