Edward Picton-Turbervill, Harriet Burns, Alexander Chance, Helen Charlston, Elgan Llŷr Thomas
Biography Edward Picton-Turbervill, Harriet Burns, Alexander Chance, Helen Charlston, Elgan Llŷr Thomas
Harriet Burns
"Brilliant and rich, comfortable even in stratospheric heights" (BBC Music Magazine), British soprano Harriet Burns is in demand for her "polished, witty, expressive and sweet toned" (the Times) singing both in recital and on stage. An acclaimed interpreter of song, Harriet has performed at Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, International Lied Festival Zeist, Ryedale Festival and de Singel with pianists including James Baillieu, Imogen Cooper, Christopher Glynn, Graham Johnson, Sholto Kynoch, Malcolm Martineau, Joseph Middleton, Ian Tindale and Michael Pandya. With her regular duo-partner, Ian Tindale, she released an album of Schubert Lieder Love's Lasting Power to critical acclaim, and also A short story of falling, they are delighted that this disc launch will be part of the Oxford International Song Festival in Spring 2026.
On the operatic stage, recent roles include the title role in Susanna (cover, Opera North, Handel) Berta (cover, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini) for West Green House Opera, King Harald's Saga (Judith Weir) for Waterperry Opera, Sifare (cover, Mitridate, re di Ponto, Mozart) and Oriana (cover, Amadigi, Handel) for Garsington Opera, Sister Grace (The Angel Esmeralda, Lliam Paterson), Nerina (La Fedeltà premiata, Haydn), and Aminta (Aminta e Fillide, Handel) with Guildhall Opera. In concert, she has sung Thea Musgrave Songs for a Winter's Evening with the Southbank Sinfonia and Gabriella Teychenné, Handel and Mozart arias with Michael Bawtree at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Dixit Dominus with Nicholas McGegan and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead, Strauss Four Last Songs with the Oxford Millennium Orchestra, and Handel Messiah with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.
Harriet is a laureate of numerous international competitions. Successes include 2nd prize and German Lied Award at 2022 Concours Musical International de Montréal (Art Song division) where she also won a Vocal Residency at McGill and Montréal Universities. In 2019, she was awarded 2nd prize at the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition, the Compulsory Song Prize and Recital Prize at the International Vocal Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch and 1st prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards at the Wigmore Hall. She is proud to be a City Music Foundation Artist, Samling Insitute Artist, and a Britten-Pears Young Artist. Harriet was a member of the Guildhall Opera School where she graduated with Distinction on the Artist Diploma programme and in 2023 was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Helen Charlston
was recently a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2021-23), and finalist of the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards for which she was a recipient of the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize.
In 2023 she won a Gramophone Award for Best Concept Album, and collected the Vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards, both for her second Delphian album Battle Cry: the only recording that year to win at both ceremonies.
This season, Helen makes her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Sesto in Calixto Bieito’s production of Giulio Cesare conducted by William Christie, and sings Handel’s Messiah at BBC Proms with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at Windsort Festival, Bach’s St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with WDR Köln under Simon Halsey, and also with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Václav Luks, and Bach’s Magnificat with RIAS Kammerchor under Justin Doyle in South Korea. In recital she performs Battle Cry with Toby Carr at Brucknerhaus Linz, with Sholto Kynoch at the Oxford International Song Festival and LIFE Victoria Barcelona, a programme of Handel with the Prague Philharmonia at Lobkowicz Palace, and she returns to Wigmore Hall with London Handel Players, Dunedin Consort, Florilegium and Toby Carr.
Other opera appearances have included her debut at Versailles Royal Opera singing Dido in Purcell Dido & Aeneas, at Grange Festival singing Sorceress/Spirit in the same opera and most recently she covered the title role in Charpentier Médée at Opéra national de Paris. She has also toured two semi-staged productions with Les Arts Florissant and William Christie singing Dido and Rosmira in Handel Partenope across France and Canada.
Recent appearances on the concert platform include premieres of a new song cycle written for her as a companion piece to Schumann Dichterliebe by Héloïse Werner at the Oxford International Song Festival and Wigmore Hall, Bach B minor mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr, as well as Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the BBC Proms with Maxim Emelyanychev, Britten’s Phaedra live in concert with BBC Philharmonic, Handel's Messiah with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and Britten Sinfonia, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Berlin Philharmonie with Justin Doyle, Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen with BBC Philharmonic and Irene in Handel Theodora with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.
“She can give life to a line like few others; her diction is marvellous, and marvellously varied; everything flows with incomparable beauty.” - Gramophone Magazine, 2024
Alexander Chance
was born in London in 1992, and educated at New College, Oxford, where he was a Choral Scholar and read Classics.
He regularly works with many of the leading conductors in the early music world, including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Masaaki Suzuki, René Jacobs, Masato Suzuki, Harry Bicket, Laurence Cummings, Jonathan Cohen, John Butt, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Marcus Creed, David Bates and Lionel Meunier. He is in demand as a concert soloist and has given many recitals around Europe, making his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam in 2024.
His debut recording, Drop not, mine eyes with lutenist Toby Carr, was named one of Gramophone Magazine’s Best albums of 2023. His recent opera roles include Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten) for The Grange Festival; Apollo (Death in Venice, Britten) for Welsh National Opera; and Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare, Handel) for English Touring Opera.
Recent and future highlights include his debut appearance at the BBC Proms, regular appearances at Wigmore Hall with the London Handel Players, Fretwork, Arcangelo and other groups, solo recitals with the English Concert, Freiburger Barockorchester and Dunedin Consort, and Andronico / Tamerlano at the International Handel Festival in Karlsruhe.
In 2022, he became the first countertenor to win the International Handel Singing Competition, also winning the Audience Prize
Elgan Llyr Thomas
In the 2022-23 season he made his role debuts as Rinuccio in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Il Trittico at Scottish Opera, his house debut at Opéra Comique as Dr Richardson in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves and his role debut as the Duke of Mantua Rigoletto for Opera Holland Park. He also made his debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Tippett’s A Child of our Time conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Upcoming engagements include a return to the role of Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Holland Park and his debut at the Buxton International Festival as Don José La Tragédie de Carmen. To close the 2023/24 season he will make his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Hannu Lintu.
Recent engagements include his house and role debut as Prunier La Rondine for Opera North and a return to the role of Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress in a European tour with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Barbara Hannigan, his Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as First Noble of Brabant Lohengrin, Ralph Rackstraw HMS Pinafore for English National Opera, Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Scottish Opera, Gonzalve L’heure Espagnole Cassio Otello and Steuermann Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera.
Previous engagements include Fenton Falstaff, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, Dr Richardson in the European premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, Brighella Ariadne auf Naxos and Titorelli/Flogger/Berthold The Trial (Scottish Opera); Nanki-Poo The Mikado and Normanno Luccia di Lammermoor (English National Opera); Johnny Inkslinger Paul Bunyan (ENO at Wilton’s Music Hall); Prologue/Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw (ENO at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia (Operá national de Bordeaux and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées); Ernesto Don Pasquale, Lindoro L’italiana in Algeri and Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia (Mananan International Festival); Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress (Klarafestival, Brussels, Aldeburgh Festival, and Ojai Festival, California); Brighella Ariadne auf Naxos (Opera Holland Park); Fenton Falstaff (Cambridge Philharmonic Society); cover Lensky Eugene Onegin, cover Binet Vert-vert and cover Selimo Maemetto Secondo (Garsington Opera); and Spoletta Tosca (Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod with the Orchestra of WNO, Sir Bryn Terfel and Kristine Opolais). Roles while studying included Florindo Le donne curiose and Male Chorus The Rape of Lucretia Lampwick The Adventures of Pinocchio (cover) (GSMD); title role Albert Herring and Lampwick (RNCM); and Johnny Inkslinger Paul Bunyan (Welsh National Youth Opera’s Britten Centenary production).
Equally in demand on the concert platform, his recent engagements include Handel’s Messiah (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall); Mozart’s Requiem (Danish National Symphony Orchestra); Orbin in Elgar’s Caractacus (Opera North Orchestra, cond. Martyn Brabbins); Kenkin’s The Armed Man, Mass for Peace (royal Liverpool Philharmonic, cond. Sir Karl Jenkins); Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (Dartington International Summer Festival, condu. Paul McCreesh); a concert with Sir Bryn Terfel at Bangor University and a Gala concert with Xi’an Symphony Orchestra in China.
His discography includes his most recent album Unveiled released on the Delphian label, Orbin in Elgar’s Caractacus for Hyperion (Opera North Orchestra, cond. Martyn Brabbins); songs by Huw Watkins and William Mathias on Taliesin’s Songbook (Tŷ Cerdd); an album of Welsh songs called Llwybrau’n Cân, and songs by Gareth Glyn on Caneuon Gareth Glyn (both for SAIN).
He is the winner of numerous awards, including the 2015 Stuart Burrows International Voice Award; the 2015 Kerry-Keane Prize and Audience Prize at the Les Azuriales Opera Young Artists Programme and has had considerable success at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. In 2010 he was the winner of the Urdd National Eisteddfod Bryn Terfel Scholarship. He was also a recipient of a 2017/18 Opera Awards Foundation Bursary and was one of the first recipients of a Study Award from the Bryn Terfel Foundation.
Edward Picton-Turbervill
is a prize-winning pianist and composer, recently selected as both a Britten Pears Young Artist 2024-25 and a 2024 City Music Foundation Artist. He has performed alongside internationally renowned singers including Ben Appl, Laurence Kilsby, Ben Johnson and Carolyn Sampson, and can be heard regularly on BBC Radio 3. As part of a collaboration with Classical Pride, he released an EP with Platoon in June 2025 alongside Harriet Burns and Jonathan Eyers. The debut album of his song cycles will be released on Delphian Records in early 2026, featuring Helen Charlston, Harriet Burns, Alexander Chance and Elgan Llŷr Thomas. Edward’s first large-scale composition, Out of Eden, was premiered at Smith Square Hall on 15 April 2025, and subsequently recorded for release on Orchid Classics in Spring 2026.
Edward studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he graduated with Distinction in Piano Accompaniment and the Concert Recital Diploma for exceptional performance. This followed a year at the University of Heidelberg and an MPhil in Environmental Policy at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a First in Music and performed as organ scholar with its world-class choir. Edward’s first book, Talking Through Trees, was published in 2017 by the Old Stile Press, and he is the founder of Pipit, a company which exists to bring song recitals back into private homes.
Edward is committed to music education and outreach: from 2018-2021, he was Head of Music at Atlantic College, where he led a major refurbishment of the music buildings and steered the department through the pandemic. He taught for many years on the Rodolfus Foundation Choral Courses, and now works as organist at St John the Divine, Kennington, assisting with the church’s renowned youth programme and the fundraising for a new organ.
