photo © Erwin Olaf

 

Alto Helena Rasker graduated with the highest distinction from the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, the Netherlands in 1994. After graduating she attended the Tanglewood Music Center in the USA, and continued her studies with Diane Forlano in London. At present she is being coached by Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Helena Rasker is a highly versatile singer with an opera, oratorio and concert repertoire ranging from early music to classical, late romantic and contemporary works.

Helena Rasker worked with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Fabio Biondi, Michel Corboz, Reinbert de Leeuw, Christian Zacharias, Ingo Metzmacher, Oliver Knussen, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Marc Albrecht, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Jaap van Zweden, Otto Tausk, Peter Neumann, Pascal Rophé, Jonathan Stockhammer and Stefan Asbury.

She sang with orchestras and ensembles such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Europa Galante, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bamberger Symphoniker, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg, ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble S and the Chamber Orchestras of Geneva and Lausanne.

Her concerts brought her to many festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Holland Festival, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, La Folle Journée de Nantes and Festival Misteria Paschalia Krakow.

On stage Helena Rasker started out in productions of Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana (Lola) at Opera Zuid and Opera Ahoy and Mozart Zauberflöte (Dritte Dame) at Opera Alden Biesen. At the Netherlands Opera she participated in productions of Schoenberg Moses und Aron (2. Solostimme aus dem brennenden Dornbusch) under Pierre Boulez, a co-production with the Salzburger Festspiele, Vivier Reves d’un Marco Polo (Yellow Creature) under Reinbert de Leeuw for the Holland Festival, the premieres of Michel van der Aa After Life (Bryna Pulmann) under Otto Tausk (live DVD-recording) and Rob Zuidam Adam in Ballingschap (Michaël) under Reinbert de Leeuw, both for the Holland Festival.

She also created the the role of La Furie in Jan Van Vlymen Thyeste under Stefan Asbury, a co-production of La Monnaye Brussels and The National Reisopera and at great critical acclaim the part of Ursula in Legende by Peter Jan Wagemans at the Netherlands Opera again under Reinbert de Leeuw. Recently she sang Strauss Elektra (Magd 1) under Marc Albrecht in the very succesful Willy Decker production at The Netherlands Opera which is to appear on CD.

Helena Rasker participated in several CD-recordings such as a live-recording of Luigi Nono Prometeo at the Salzburger Festspiele with Ingo Metzmacher, Luigi Nono Guai ai Gelidi Mostri with Andre Richard, Schoenberg Moses und Aron with Pierre Boulez and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Michael Haydn Requiem with Christian Zacharias, Purcell Dido&Aeneas with Jed Wentz, Haendel Theodora with Peter Neumann and works by Claude Vivier with Reinbert de Leeuw, as well as many radio- and television-recordings throughout Europe.

 

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