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The American soprano, Chelsea Helm, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance and Music Education from Western Michigan University (2009-2013); and her Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University (2015-2017).
With spirit and sensitivity, Chelsea Helm brings a versatile voice to the concert stage. She has appeared as a concert soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Muskegon Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Festival Orchestra, and with University Orchestras at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse. Favorite performances include W.A. Mozart's Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
With a special affinity for new music and contemporary premieres, Chelsea Helm has created numerous roles in chamber works for live theatrical and digital mediums. Recently, she was featured in Houston Grand Opera’s NOW, Episode 2 from their Star-Cross’d series of short-form operas, premiered on YouTube, and written by Avner Dorman with libretto by John Grimmett. She also created the title role in Lolly Willowes, a contemporary chamber musical that premiered at MATCH Houston in 2019, composed by Michael Alec Rose and based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
On the operatic stage, Chlsea Helm has performed the roles of Norina in Don Pasquale (Janiec Opera Company), Nireno in George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare and Nella in Gianni Schicchi (Shepherd School of Music), and Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen (Soo Theatre Project). Named “West Michigan’s leading young soprano” by Opera Grand Rapids after winning their 2013 Collegiate Vocal Competition, she went on to join the company for several comprimario and chorus roles.
Last season (2019-2020) Chlsea Helm enjoyed performances with the Bach Society Houston, the Calvin Oratorio Society of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was a Vocal Fellow with the Charlotte Bach Festival, under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett. An active choral artist, she appears this season (2020-2021) with GRAMMY®-winning Conspirare, GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and GRAMMY® nominated Seraphic Fire.
Also a WMU Gold Company alumna, Chelsea Helm recorded a Downbeat award-winning album with vocal jazz quartet the Four Corners. She cherishes opportunities to sneak jazz singing into her predominantly classical performing schedule, and has recently enjoyed features with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, including last year’s Late Night with Chelsea Helm and the Bert Dalton Trio, a program spotlight during the 2019 Summer Festival.
Chelsea Helm is now based in New York City and can be heard with The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Chamber Choir and as a chorister and soloist with Holy Trinity Lutheran’s Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity: Bach Cantata Series. |
