Dutch contralto Helena Rasker’s career encompasses the operatic stage, the concert platform and the recital hall across a vast and expanding repertoire. She has enjoyed working with many notable conductors including: Sir George Benjamin, Sir Antonio Pappano, Maxime Pascal, Marc Minkowski, Jaap van Zweden, René Jacobs, Raphaël Pichon, Marc Albrecht and Yannick Nézet- Seguin.

In the 2024/25 Season, Helena will make her role debut as Mescalina in a new production of Le Grand Macabre at the Teatro Massimo, Palermo conducted by Omer Meir Wellber; she will appear at Dutch National Opera in two new productions: making her role debut as Auntie Peter Grimes and as “4” in the World Premiere of Philip Venables opera We Are The Lucky Ones directed by Ted Huffmann. Helena will appear once again with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra singing the role of Irene in Handel’s Tamerlano conducted by René Jacobs in a tour including Palau de les Arts, Valencia, Teatro Real Madrid and Ópera de Oviedo.

Last season, Helena’s operatic engagements included her return to Dutch National Opera as Zita/Gianni Schicci and La Badessa/Suor Angelica in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Il trittico conducted by Lorenzo Viotti; she made her debut at the Opera Vlaanderen as Fédorine in the World Premiere of Brodeck by Daan Janssens and she appeared as the Ugly Duchess and The Owl in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. While in concert she appeared with Ensemble Modern, Basel Kammerorchestra, the Dutch Radio Orchestra and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.

In the 2022/23 season, Helena’s operatic engagements included her debut at the Berlin Staatsoper as Andronico in a new production of Vivaldi’s Il Giustino; she returned to Dutch National Opera as Clover the Mare in the World Premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s Animal Farm; she made her role debut as Gluck’s Orfeo with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra conducted by René Jacobs and she returned to the Salzburg Festival in Simon Stone’s new production of The Greek Passion.

Helena recently created the central role in the World Premiere of Like Flesh by Sivan Eldar at Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpelier and the Opéra national de Lorraine directed by Silvia Costa; she appeared at the Opéra national du Rhin as the Grandmother, the Old Lady and the Finn Woman in The Snowqueen by Abrahamsen and reprised these roles in concert performance at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Kent Nagano; she recorded Bach’s B Minor Mass with René Jacobs and AKAMUS Berlin; she made her debut with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo touring to Berlin, Freiburg, Paris and Madrid and she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Romeo Castelucci’s new production of De temporum fine comoedia conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Helena made her debut at The Royal Opera House and the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Erna in the World Premiere of Morgen und Abend written for her by Georg Friedrich Haas and she recently returned to the Festival d’Aix en Provence in the World Premiere of The Arab Apocalypse directed by Pierre Audi; she returned to the Aalto Musiktheater Essen as the Old Countess Pique Dame and she made debuts at the Théâtre de Champs Elysees, Paris and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Robert Wilson’s new staging of The Messiah and she returned to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam as Stařenka Buryjovka Jenufa with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Helena reprised the Contralto role in George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill with Ensemble Modern at the Wigmore Hall and at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and with the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Festival Présences, Paris and with the Münchener Kammerorchester. Other recent concert engagements include: Bach’s Matthäus Passion; Mahler’s 8th Symphony and Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Leocasta in Händel’s Giustino with with Lautten Compagney at the Händel-Festspiele Halle.

In concert, Rasker has worked with orchestras including the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Gulbenkian Orchestra; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; London Sinfonietta; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; the Lausanne and Geneva Chamber Orchestras; Europa Galante and ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble. She has sung at festivals throughout Europe and in Australia.

Helena Rasker trained at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Tanglewood Music Center.