HéloïseWerner
Contact
Megan Steller
Representation
About Héloïse
French-born soprano and composer Héloïse Werner is currently an Associate Artist at Wigmore Hall and is ‘quickly becoming a latter-day Cathy Berberian or Meredith Monk’ (Richard Morrison, The Times). Her debut album 'Phrases' was released in 2022 on Delphian Records, and quickly garnered widespread critical acclaim, including Sunday Times' 10 Best Classical Records of 2022, Gramophone magazine's Editor’s Choice (“extraordinary range, tone and vocal abilities… composer of subtle imagination”), Presto Classical's Editor’s Choice (“absolute tour de force”), BBC Music Magazine's Choral/Song Choice (*****), The Times' Classical album of the week (****). Apple Music described the disc as “a staggering debut from an imaginative and original voice”. Héloïse's anticipated follow-up 'close-ups' will be released in June 2024, and launched at the Southbank Centre.
As a composer, Werner has written for the CBSO, Aurora Orchestra, Maitrise de Radio France, London Handel Festival, Lawrence Power, Mishka Rushdie-Momen and Helen Charlston and has commissions in the pipeline for Manchester Collective, St Paul’s Cathedral, BBC Singers, and Royal Northern Sinfonia, amongst others. As a soprano, Héloïse has performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Grange Festival, CBSO and Nash Ensemble, and created the role of Madame DuVal in Sarah Angliss’ opera Giant opening the Aldeburgh Festival 2023. Of her solo opera The Other Side of the Sea, The Times said "you can't help but be dazzled by it..."
Héloïse is a fluent improviser and musical leader, working with the contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment, the winners of the Young Artist Award at the RPS awards in 2021.
Representation
Season Highlights
Video
Héloïse Werner: Close-ups
Héloïse Werner and Hae Sun Kang perform Close-ups by Héloïse Werner, a world premiere commissioned by Radio France. Extract from the concert recorded on February 6, 2024 at the Auditorium de la Maison de la Radio et de la Musique as part of the 34th Festival Présences: Steve Reich. Credit: Written for & performed with Hae-Sun Kang at the Festival Présences 2024
PlayingLockdown Commission #8 - 'Mixed Phrases' by Héloïse Werner
Credit: Lawrence Power
PlayingHéloïse Werner: Sable & Snow (World Premiere)
Héloïse Werner (voice) and La Maîtrise de Radio France perform Héloïse Werner's world premiere of “Sable & Snow”, conducted by Sofi Jeannin. Extract from the Concert given on December 9, 2022 at the Auditorium de la Maison de la Radio et de la Musique. Credit: Written for & performed with Maîtrise de Radio France, conducted by Sofi Jeannin
PlayingHéloïse Werner: coronasolfege for 6
Coronasolfege was born at the start of lockdown in March 2020. Just like every other musician in the world, all my performances suddenly got cancelled and I was stuck at home with nothing to do. I needed to find something to keep myself occupied. I started experimenting with creating rhythms and short melodies only using my face (eyes, teeth, voice) and my hands (on my cheeks). I came up with a simple 30-second composition where my eyes, teeth, voice and hands each go in different but repeated rhythms: eyes in crotchets, teeth in quavers, voice in triplets and hands in semiquavers. I filmed it, posted it on Twitter and Coronasolfege was born. Creating these Coronasolfege videos gave me a sense of purpose - each one was like a mini challenge. My main goal with them was to cheer people up so each video is upbeat and sometimes funny. Alongside the rhythmic games and melodic earworms, I also enjoyed creating comical characters using world-plays and props. This project has been a lovely way to be socially engaged with people from all over the world during the difficult periods of isolation. I wrote this new piece for this wonderful ensemble – I hope you enjoy the result… Credit: Written by Héloïse and performed by The Gesualdo Six
PlayingHéloïse Werner: Confessional
'Confessional' - written & performed by Héloïse Werner. This piece is a reworking of sections from 'The Other Side of Sea' an opera written with Octavia Bright in 2018, with generous support from the Michael Cuddigan Trust. Credit: Written and performed by Héloïse
PlayingHéloïse Werner: Lullaby for a Sister
Credit: Performed by Héloïse Werner and Colin Alexander, video by Emma Werner
Playing
Selected Repertoire
| Héloïse Werner | REJOICE! (2023) for choir & orchestra, commissioned by the London Handel Festival and premiered by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Sofi Jeannin at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 6 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| Héloïse Werner | for mira (2022) for orchestra, commissioned by the Aurora Orchestra and premiered by the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, 25 March 2023 |
| Héloïse Werner | crossings (2022) for soprano & orchestra, commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and premiered by CBSO & Héloïse, conducted by Clark Rundell at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 29 January 2023 |
| Héloïse Werner | Unspecified Intentions (2022) for voice & string orchestra, arranged by Héloïse and Colin Alexander and premiered by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & Héloïse in May 2022 for BBC Radio 3’s ‘This Classical Life Live’ |
News
Press
close-ups: Sophomore Album
Delphian RecordsJun 2024This disc captivates listeners with its improvisational and dramatic concept, blurring traditional sounds while showcasing Werner's technical brilliance, often creating a luminous effect.
- Andrew Palmer, The Yorkshire Times
- 22 June 2024
A hotly-awaited second album from soprano-composer Héloïse Werner weaves together a dizzying tapestry of conceptual threads - from a melancholy, fatalistic song by Barbara Strozzi, via a scathing survey of male attitudes to quote-unquote 'hysteria' from the fifth century BC up until the early 2020s, to the macaronic close-ups by Werner herself (to words by her sister), it is an exhilarating and unique journey of discovery.
- Katherine Cooper, Presto Music
- 10 April 2024
Héloïse Werner is a unique voice in contemporary music performance, literally as a soprano with the same astonishing acrobatic versatility as, say, the late Jane Manning, and also as a composer whose music evokes a uniquely translucent freedom of expression. She’s been a key member of the experimental ensemble The Hermes Experiment, but teams up here with a miscellany of similarly minded instrumentalists for a refreshingly personal musical journey chiefly of her own music, interspersed with the fragile simplicity of Errollyn Wallen’s Tree and sublime arrangements of songs from earlier centuries by Barbara Strozzi, Julie Pinel and the iconic Hildegard of Bingen. Her own close-ups is the centrepiece, encompassing spectral enchantment and fiery absurdity. Unexpected Intentions is as madcap as any Maxwell Davies music theatre piece, Les Leçons du mardi a hysterical musical menagerie. Three improvisations (Echoes) act as transitional meditations. Lullaby for a Sister makes a deeply moving conclusion.
- Ken Walton, The Scotsman
- 21 June 2024
