Live Handel’s Messiah Sat 2 January

Olivier Award winner, Peter Whelan, is among the most dynamic and versatile exponents of historical performance of his generation. He is Artistic Director of Irish Baroque Orchestra and Curator for Early Music of Norwegian Wind Ensemble. In addition to taking up the role of Artistic Partner with National Symphony Orchestra Ireland in January 2026, he becomes Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra from the 2026/2027 season and is Music Director Designate in 2025/2026.

As a conductor, Peter has a particular passion for exploring and championing neglected music from the Baroque and Classical eras. Recent engagements have included appearances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, Dunedin Consort, Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, Gluck Orfeo with San Francisco Opera, Vivaldi l’Olimpiade with Irish National Opera (across Ireland and the Royal Opera House, London) and Rodelinda at Garsington Opera.

Highlights of the 2025/26 season include an appearance at the BBC Proms with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and return visits to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

Peter’s artistic direction in live performance and the recording studio has been widely praised for its “rich insight, style and charisma” (Guardian), its “stylish verve” (BBC Music Magazine), and “energetic yet unfailingly sensitive direction” (Gramophone). As a champion of early music and opera, Peter represents “the very best of contemporary trends in bringing this music to life: flex and zest with tempi, lithe and vigorous … an incredible alertness to colors and moods summoned by the cut-and-thrust harmonic footwork of this music” (Operawire) and “The English Concert and their musical director Peter Whelan brought Handel’s fabulous score to life in a performance of surpassing rhythmic energy, richly dramatic colouring and heart-breaking lyrical grace” (The Telegraph).

See Peter Whelan conduct Handel’s Messiah with the RSNO on 2 January 2027.

Scottish-born, Paris-based soprano Rachel Redmond is establishing herself as a sought-after interpreter of baroque repertoire. Appearing at major venues and festivals throughout Europe, her recent Handel roles have attracted particular praise. 

Having started her earlier career with Le Jardin du Voix, the young artist’s programme of Les Arts Florissants, Rachel has performed extensively with the group in programmes of the French baroque masters as well as Purcell, Handel and Bach directed by both William Christie and Paul Agnew. She made her stage début at the Opéra Comique in Lully Atys. Her other opera appearances include Second Woman Dido & Aeneas for Aix-en-Provence Festival, Loena La Belle Hélène at Théâtre du Châtelet, Dalinda Ariodante for Göttingen International Handel Festival, Fortuna L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Opéra du Rhin, Papagena Die Zauberflöte for Edinburgh International Festival, Susanna The Marriage of Figaro for English Touring Opera and Aminta in Vivaldi L’Olimpiade for Irish National Opera and the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre. In concert she has also sung the roles of Dorinda Orlando with the Academy of Ancient Music / Laurence Cummings and Doña Isabel The Indian Queen at the Salzburg Festival with the Utopia Orchestra / Teodor Currentzis. 

Concert engagements include Bach B Minor Mass with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / John Butt at the BBC Proms; Purcell and Handel with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Kristian Bezuidenhout; Handel Esther and London Handel Festival / Laurence Cummings and Bach and Handel with The English Concert / Harry Bicket. Aside from period ensembles Rachel has worked with the Northern Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras. She counts amongst her musical collaborators conductors Christophe Rousset, Trevor Pinnock, Leonardo Garcia Alarcón and Jordi Savall. 

Recently released on the Linn label is Rachel Baptist: Ireland’s Black Syren a disc of repertoire sung by the 18th Century Irish soprano of African descent recorded with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Peter Whelan. 

Rachel Redmond studied at the Music School of Douglas Academy, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Born in Glasgow she lives in Paris and holds an Irish passport. 

See Rachel Redmond perform Handel’s Messiah with the RSNO on 2 January 2027.

Helen Charlston’s ability to make each performance completely her own and her depth of connection with audiences has earned her international acclaim as “one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” (Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone). She was recently a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2021-23), and was the 2023 Gramophone Award winner for Best Concept Album and also collected the Vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for her second Delphian album: Battle Cry: the only recording that year to win at both ceremonies.

This season, Helen makes her debut at Dutch National Opera in the world premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Theory of Flames in the role of Marianne. On the concert platform she sings the title role in Solomon with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mozart Requiem at Casa da Musica under Andreas Spering and also the Czech Philharmonic under Giovanni Antonini, Bach B minor mass with De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Richard Egarr, and Bach St Matthew Passion with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Laurence Cummings. In recital she collaborates with the Consone Quartet at the Brighton Early Music Festival and also at Oxford Song, with Sholto Kynoch at the Wimbledon Festival and the National Centre for Early Music amongst other venues, with Roman Rabinovich in Canada, and she performs an ensemble programme at Fundación Juan March in Madrid.

Recent opera appearances have included her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Sesto in Calixto Bieito’s production of Giulio Cesare conducted by William Christie, her debut at Versailles Royal Opera singing Dido in Purcell Dido & Aeneas, at Grange Festival singing Sorceress/Spirit in the same opera, and she covered the title role in Charpentier Médée at Opéra national de Paris. She has also toured two semi-staged productions with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie singing Dido and Rosmira in Handel Partenope across France and Canada.

Further 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, 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, Britten Sinfonia, and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Proms, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Berlin Philharmonie with Justin Doyle, and also Bach’s Magnificat in South Korea, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with WDR Köln under Simon Halsey, Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer with BBC Philharmonic, Elgar Sea Pictures and Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with BBC Symphony, and Irene in Handel Theodora with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.

As artistic advisor for York Early Music Festival, Helen featured in a residency in 2024 performing a wide range of music by Dowland and Couperin, to Schumann and Mendelssohn, and a set of new commissions for her and Toby Carr by Ben Rowarth and Anna Semple.

See Helen Charlston perform Handel’s Messiah with the RSNO on 2 January 2027.

Hailed by The Sunday Times’ Hugh Canning as the “Mozart tenor to watch,” Anthony Gregory is admired for his unique timbre, stage presence, and musicality. A former Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne and alumnus of both the National Opera Studio and the Royal College of Music, Gregory was named one of opera’s future stars by esteemed critic Rupert Christiansen and won the 2015 Breakthrough Artist Award at the WhatsOnStage Opera Poll following his standout performance as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw. His successes include appearances with Glyndebourne Festival, Royal Ballet and Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Teatro Real in Madrid, Bergen Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Scottish Opera, and Norwegian National Opera in Oslo.

In the 2025–26 season, Gregory makes two highly anticipated debuts, including his return to Opernhaus Zürich in his role debut in the title role of Glaucus et Scylla under the baton of Emmanuelle Haïm, and his company debut with Santa Fe Opera as Grimoaldo in Rodelinda with Harry Bicket. On the concert platform, he performs Glaucus et Scylla with Le Concert d’Astrée, appears as the tenor soloist in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, performs Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and joins The English Concert and Harry Bicket for a concert at Wigmore Hall.

During the 2024–25 season, Gregory made a series of exciting role and company debuts: as Achilles in Iphigénie en Aulide at Greek National Opera, Oronte in Alcina at Opera di Roma, and the title role in Mitridate, Re di Ponto in a return to Staatsoper Hamburg. Other highlights included his return to the role of Flute in Laurent Pelly’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opéra de Lausanne and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Maxim Emelyanychev.

Further operatic highlights include his mainstage debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Ferrando (Così fan tutte); a widely praised debut as the Leper in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise at the Elbphilharmonie with Staatsoper Hamburg; Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for Scottish Opera; Ferrando at Opera North; and Acis in Acis and Galatea at Opera Holland Park. He has performed Pane (La Calisto) at Bayerische Staatsoper; featured in Christian Spuck’s Monteverdi ballet at Opernhaus Zürich; and appeared as Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opéra de Rouen. Other engagements include Don Ottavio in Oslo, Oronte in Alcina at Teatro Real and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and multiple roles with Glyndebourne Festival and Tour, including Peter Quint, Don Ottavio, Flute, and Vafrino (Hipermestra). He also created the role of Florizel in The Winter’s Tale and performed numerous roles with English National Opera as a Harewood Artist, such as Colonel Fairfax (The Yeomen of the Guard), Nanki-Poo (The Mikado), and Haemon (Thebans).

In concert, Gregory has performed with many of Europe’s leading orchestras and conductors. Notable highlights include Messiah with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Dunedin Consort, and English National Opera; Carmina Burana with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and Lahti Symphony Orchestra; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Glyndebourne Chorus and Orchestra. He has sung Bach’s St Matthew Passion with BBC NOW and Harry Bicket, St John Passion with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie, and Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Edinburgh International Festival. Gregory appeared at the BBC Proms in Hugh Wood’s Scenes from Comus and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and performed Savitri with Britten Sinfonia under Sir Mark Elder. Additional credits include La concordia de’ pianeti with La Cetra Barockorchester, Acis and Galatea with Trevor Pinnock and La Nuova Musica, and a solo recital at the Lufthansa Baroque Festival.

Gregory, previously a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne, is an alumnus of the National Opera Studio and the Royal College of Music.

See Anthony Gregory perform Handel’s Messiah with the RSNO on 2 January 2027.

British bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English at the University of Cambridge where he was a member of the King’s College Choir under Stephen Cleobury. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  

An extremely versatile artist, his 2025/26 season includes Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles at the BBC Proms under Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in the role of Brander with Rafael Payare and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Handel’s Rinaldo with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time under Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Norris’ A Christmas Carol recital at Wigmore Hall. 

In the 2024/25 season, he performed Handel’s Messiah at the BBC Proms under John Butt and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Nil Venditti and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ under Paul McCreesh and the NFW Wrocław Philharmonic, Bach’s St John Passion with The English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket, Puccini’s La rondine with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Pappano. 

A former Jette Parker Young Artist, his roles for the Royal Opera House include Morales Carmen, Mandarin Turandot, Baron Douphol La Traviata and Officer Les Dialogues des Carmelites. For the English National Opera, he has sung Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Schaunard La Bohème, Escamillo Carmen, and the Pirate King The Pirates of Penzance. Elsewhere, he has appeared as Silvano in Cavalli’s La Calisto at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Brander Le damnation de Faust for the Glyndebourne Festival; Claudio Agrippina at the Grange Festival; Don Giovanni, Harasta The Cunning Little Vixen, and Ibn-Hakia Iolanta for Opera Holland Park; Simon Peter in Schubert’s Lazarus in a new Frederic Wake-Walker production at the Potsdamer Winteroper; and Count Almaviva in Tokyo. This season he returns to the Royal Opera House as Roucher Andrea Chenier.  

Highlights on the concert platform include Berlioz’s Lélio with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Carnegie Hall, Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with the Sir Simon Rattle/London Symphony Orchestra, a European tour of Giulio Cesare and Agrippina with Christophe Rousset /Les Talens Lyriques, and Creon Oedipus Rex with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. With repertoire ranging from J. S. Bach to Michael Tippett, Ashley has sung with orchestras including the Academy of Ancient Music, Helsinki Baroque, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, London Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Recent appearances include Angelotti Tosca with Edward Gardner/Bergen Philharmonic, Messiaen’s St Francois d’Assise with Ryan Wigglesworth/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Daniel Harding/Czech Philharmonic. 

An accomplished recitalist, and former BBC New Generation Artist 2016-2018, Ashley has collaborated with pianists including Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside, Julius Drake, Joseph Middleton, Anna Tilbrook, James Baillieu, Simon Lepper, Gary Matthewman and Sholto Kynoch. This season he returns to the Oxford International Song Festival and Wigmore Hall.   

He released his debut solo recital disc, A Musical Zoo, in 2021. His discography includes Purcell’s King Arthur with the Gabrieli Consort & Players under Paul McCreesh (BBC Music Magazine 2020 Recording of the Year), Wonderful Town with the London Symphony Orchestra under Rattle recorded for LSO Live and, most recently, Handel’s La Resurrezione with The English Concert under Harry Bicket.  

See Ashley Riches perform Handel’s Messiah with the RSNO on 2 January 2027.

The RSNO Chorus performs in around six different programmes in up to twenty concerts across Scotland with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra each year. The RSNO Chorus has also had great success in recording with the Orchestra. Its recordings, amongst others, of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, conducted by Neeme Jӓrvi, and Holst’s The Planets, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, have both attracted high critical acclaim.

In addition to its commitment to the Orchestra, the RSNO Chorus performs independently and has been invited to perform with orchestras in many parts of the world, establishing an international status and touring to Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, Belfast, Australia, Trondheim and most recently, Amsterdam and Prague. In 2018 it performed Britten’s War Requiem with the RSNO at the BBC Proms.

The RSNO Chorus evolved from a choir formed in 1843 to sing the first full performance of Handel’s Messiah in Scotland. Today, it is one of the most successful choruses in the UK. In recent years, it has performed practically every work in the standard choral repertoire along with contemporary works by renowned composers, including John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, Howard Shore and James MacMillan.

Stephen Doughty has been Chorus Director of the RSNO Chorus since the start of the 2022:23 Season. Since his arrival the Chorus has seen an influx of new members, and an abundance of varied and critically acclaimed performances, including Verdi’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Bruckner’s E Minor Mass and the Scottish premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio. He has also directed the Chorus in new and imaginative programmes in their own right, including Rheinberger’s glorious Mass in E flat for double choir, and concerts with percussion and organ featuring Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, the European premiere of McIntyre’s Missa Brevis and Ives’ final major choral work, Psalm 90.  Stephen’s previous 12-year tenure as Chorus Master of Belfast Philharmonic Choir included a number of world premieres, most significantly James Whitbourn’s The Seven Heavens and Philip Hammond’s Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic, performed exactly 100 years since the liner went down, and further European premieres of both Stuart Scott’s Requiem Brevis, which saw the 100-strong choir separated into eight choirs spaced around the audience, and Christopher Marshall’s Earthsong.

Stephen particularly enjoys working with amateur singers, not least leading regular singing days frequently involving up to 800 amateur singers. He was Musical Director of Edinburgh Bach Choir for 7 years and has enjoyed the directing the Garleton Singers for over 30 years, performing with them recently at the Lammermuir Festival.

Stephen plays harpsichord/organ continuo and orchestral piano and has given frequent organ recitals, including several on the grand Mulholland Organ in the Ulster Hall, Belfast. He is also in demand as an arranger and orchestrator, with a large portfolio of work particularly for young voices. He has produced a plethora of arrangements of the music of pianist Christopher Norton, including two publications of piano duets and a suite for wind sextet, and has received commissions from Children’s Classic Concerts, the Ulster Orchestra and the RSNO. Commissions from the BBC have seen his work being performed on BBC Alba and at the Last Night of the Proms, and his pieces feature on several recordings, including with the RSNO Chorus.

Finally, Stephen is an Examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Born in Huddersfield in 1964, Paul Whittaker has been profoundly deaf all his life yet pursued a career as a musician. A pianist and organist, he has a music degree from Wadham College, Oxford, a postgraduate performance diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and holds ALCM and ARCO diplomas.

In 1988, he founded Music and the Deaf, a charity to help deaf people enjoy music, which he ran for 27 years. In 2007, he was awarded an OBE for Services to Music and he also holds honorary degrees from the University of Huddersfield and Open University.

For the past 13 years, Paul has been working with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on their Feel the Music project, visiting many different countries around the world introducing deaf children to orchestral music. In 2023, he was invited to work with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin on a project involving deaf children and adults and in 2024 will work with an ensemble in Malmo on a similar project.

Since May 2015 he has been working freelance as a motivational speaker, signed song performer and workshop leader, and currently runs several signing choirs across the UK.

Paul has signed many musical shows and concerts, and performed with The King’s Singers, Tenebrae, Dunedin Consort, VOCES8, the Royal Liverpool, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Halle orchestras, with Children’s Classic Concerts and at many festivals, including the Cumnock Tryst and BBC Proms. He is delighted to be returning to the RSNO after joining them last November for James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio.

See Paul Whittaker perform Ode to Joy on 12 and 13 June 2026.