"Whenever I hear the soprano Helen-Jane Howells, I'm struck by the impression of wisdom and simplicity that she achieves by intelligently articulating the nature of the text, with seemingly effortless accuracy in the many florid runs and ornaments and, perhaps above all, with a scintillating and never forced upper register. She maintained the energy until the end, a highlight being the thrilling decorations to final aria on the words 'God, who makes intercession for us'.
James Francis Brown on Messiah with Orchestra Nova. Herts News, April 2018
James Francis Brown on Messiah with Orchestra Nova. Herts News, April 2018
"Duetted exquisitely..." “Deliciously suggestive..." “Lithe voiced, bright charm"
Barry Millington* for the Evening Standard , Tim Ashley for the Guardian and Robert Hugill for Planet Hugill, blog on Purcell King Arthur for the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh, July 2015
“...the cast was uniformly excellent. Helen-Jane Howells's Gossamer Beynon was well-observed and elegantly sung"
Opera Magazine, Rian Evans, June 2014
“...Howells delivering tinkling coloratura with a tea-set for percussion"
The Times 4* review of Under Milk Wood, April 2014, Anna Picard
“I have to give special mention to Paul Carey-Jones...and Helen-Jane Howells' chatty teen [Lily Smalls], as well as their combination as the bitter married couple Mr and Mrs Pugh"
Buzzmag online, review of Under Milk Wood (John Metcalf), April 2014, Heather Arnold
“In multiple roles as the flawed villagers, the singers Elizabeth Donovan, Helen-Jane Howells, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Paul Carey Jones, Karina Lucas, Richard Morris and Eamonn Mulhall are all excellent in getting the words across and capture a world of delight and regret, gossip and black humour".
The Telegraph 4* review of Under Milk Wood, April 2014, John Allison
“Much of the success of the choral works was due to the solo singing of sopranos Elin Manahan Thomas and Helen-Jane Howells, bass Robert Davies and tenor Nick Pritchard... These were voices attuned in tone and sentiment to the compactness and discipline of the chorus and orchestra, even when the vocal lines were decorated. It was a model lesson in early music practice and performance, conducted adroitly by David Hill”
South Wales Argus, Nigel Jarrett
“...and Helen-Jane Howells has half a dozen exquisite ones [arias], all on target, as the Science Teacher"
“The Science Teacher, H-J Howells, delivers several mesmerising numbers ('Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air)"
The Arts Desk and for Seen and Heard, on Bury Court Opera's production of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, Feb-March 2014, Roger Dunnett
“Phibbs music is seemingly transfixed by the text, especially as performed by Helen-Jane Howells and the Navarra String Quartet"
BBC Music Magazine, August 2013
“Howells...was fearless, even as temperatures and rain fell, singing with purity and honesty and no sign of shivering. Her ‘Remember me' in the famous Lament was heart-rending"
“Enchantingly pure, open singing from the leads Helen-Jane Howells as Dido and Elin Manahan Thomas as Belinda"
Observer & Telegraph on Dido & Aeneas in the Roman Baths with Florilegium at the Bath Festival May 2013, Fiona Maddocks & Michael White
“Soprano Helen-Jane Howells, an intrepid young singer... sings with sweetness and steel in The Canticle of the Rose, taking the ascents above the staff in stride and trusting her technique to enable her to successfully negotiate the labyrinthine twists of Mr. Phibbs’s formidable musical architecture. The purity of Ms. Howells’s tone introduces a suggestion of playful innocence into the dark world of Sitwell’s texts, and the array of emotions that she delivers reveals the subtleties of Mr. Phibbs’s music. The Canticle of the Rose is music of the consistently high quality that demands the best of the artists who perform it: the performance on this recording is nothing short of definitive"
Voix des Arts. June 2013 Full review here. Joseph Newsome
Times 4* review (Hilary Finch) “McCarthy’s production has actor Nia Roberts separated by a gauze from her alter ego, the soprano Helen-Jane Howells. They share Beckett’s text like the shifting light of an unstable psyche: both give superb performances, complemented by an electronic score and a stuttering monochrome video projection by Sandro Aguilar. Just two more shows: be sure to be there"
Times review of Vasco Mendonca's Ping with Music Theatre Wales, April 2013
“Helen-Jane Howells is an experienced soloist and Bach singer who performed her arias with a natural ease, her voice carrying in the sometimes difficult acoustic of the Cathedral. She was totally immersed in the music even when not singing"
Review of Bach St. John Passion in the Herts Advertiser (Mary Cook) April 2013
“It was a joy to hear Helen-Jane Howells' beautiful, clear soprano line"
Mid Sussex Times on Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Neil Jenkins and the Sussex Chorus, January 2013, Simon Austin
“A highlight for me of this work was the Domine Deus, in which the solo soprano (Helen-Jane Howells) duets with the oboe (Tony Robson, OAE). The matching of the two voices was perfect and both the soloists seemed to enjoy working together, this was apparent in their reactions to each other and from the music"
Bachtrack, on the concert with the OAE at Malta Cathedral, January 2013. Full review , Anthony Hart
“In the second half Robin Blaze was joined by the fine soprano Helen-Jane Howells for Bach's setting of Psalm 51"
The Times on La Nuova Musica 'Bach Unwrapped' at King's Place, January 2013, Neil Fisher
“Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of the evening was the opportunity to enjoy the vocal skills and musicianship of ... Helen-Jane Howells. Helen-Jane’s wonderful voice and unerring musicianship were heard to great effect in Strauss’s elegiac Four Last Songs. Here the voice becomes another strand in the masterly polyphonic texture, and the purity and expressiveness of Helen-Jane’s voice was ideal for this music. Vocal colour supported by beautiful harmonic changes amid a shimmering orchestral texture are the key to this work, and this blend was achieved to such perfection by soloist, orchestra and conductor, that members of the audience felt that they wanted to hear the music again – immediately!”
Review for the Tonbridge Philharmonic (24.11.12), Roger Everden
“Fine support came from sopranos Katherine Manley and Helen-Jane Howells (a very perky Spring in the masque of the seasons)"
The Times four-star review The Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort at the Spitalfields Festival. June 2012, Neil Fisher
“Both the soprano and alto soloists…were also chosen for a sound far removed from…the bulging voices of old fashioned oratorio singers. Here all was simple and clear, unpretentious and quite simply beautiful”. Excerpt from “Close to perfection”
Review of Bach St. John Passion with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Kraemer on 30th March 2012.
From the paper Fædrelandsvennen by Emil Otto Syvertsen.
“All the soloists sang with assurance and grace and were...at times deeply moving...It gave great pleasure as did the exquisite singing of Helen-Jane Howells"
Review in 'Seek Magazine' on JS Bach Johannes-Passion, at St. Mark's, Cambridge. March 2012.
“Soprano Helen-Jane Howells has a supple coloratura sound, gracefully phrased, a big voice when she really opens up"
The Bath Chronicle. Handel Messiah, Bath Abbey. Full review here, Peter Lloyd Williams
“...the aria soloists - Helen-Jane Howells, Robin Blaze, Catherine Hopper, Andrew Tortise and Stephen Loges - are riveting"
The Times. Bach St. Matthew Passion, Vocal Futures & OAE., Richard Morrison
“...especially when the energetic Navarra Quartet supported the colourful singing of Helen-
Jane Howells in his (Joseph Phibbs) impressive work The Canticle of the Rose"
Western Mail, link here. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 'Pre-Hear', November 26th 2011. For reviews from the Presteigne Festival click here
“The Kyrie knocked the socks off all who listened, in no small part to the wonderful entry of soprano Helen-Jane Howells – a ringing note cutting above all the orchestras fuss and choir’s pathos – another goose-pimple moment”
Bachtrack.com. Mozart ‘C Minor Mass’, Coventry Cathedral, Nov 2011, Arthur Keegan-Bole
“Huw Watkins was the commanding presence in a rewarding song-recital on Friday afternoon, his own 'Five Larkin Songs' delivered with piercing insight by soprano Helen-Jane Howells, the composer at the piano. Howells moved easily from the Purcellian coloratura which opens Britten’s 'On this Island' to the cabaret wit which concludes it. More Britten came with some of his folksong settings. The soloist’s eye-contact and body-language such effective vehicles. We also heard the premiere of Julian Philips’ busy, testing and organically unified 'Love Songs of Amy Lowell', and Sonnet III 'Alla Luna' by the eminent Lithuanian composer Zita Bruzaite, clearly and simply structured, Howells’ radiant soprano joined by deft oboist Helen Barker..."
Birmingham Post
“Distinctive and memorable...Majestic and uplifting"
Stratford Herald on 'Lent Unrelenting' at the Kempe Studios, April 2012
“Howells's 'Blute Nur', an unwinding coil of temperate loveliness"
The Arts Desk review of Bach St. Matthew Passion at the Royal Festival Hall, April 2011. Alexandra Coghlan
“Helen-Jane Howells, substituting the indisposed Susan Gritton, achieved a state of introspection and meditation. Howells was magnificent in 'Rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion' which she brought forth with the grace and sensuality required. Her performance of 'I know that my redeemer liveth' was truly moving"
Translation of concert review by Luis Alfonso Bes, ‘Heraldo de Aragón’, Zaragoza of Handel Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort directed by Paul McCreesh, December 2010.
“H-J Howells' soprano soared mightily into the apse of All Saints like the nightingale in the score"
The Argus, Louise Schweitzer
“...and Helen-Jane Howells's bell-like soprano were especially notable"
The Financial Times, 16 Dec 2010 (La Nuova Musica at Spitalfields Festival), Laura Battle
“The beauty and technical ease of Helen-Jane's wide-ranging voice and her sensitive interpretation of the texts kept the audience in wrapped attention throughout. This is surely a Soprano approaching the peak of her career with supreme confidence and worthy adoration of her audiences"
Grayston Burgess, Charterhouse Music Society on 'The Beauty of Troubled Mind' recital
“Helen-Jane Howells is a fine Amore, a trouser-suited youth sparking and prodding the action...”
Whats on Stage on Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea, Glyndebourne on Tour
“Your ‘Et incarnatus est’ on Saturday was one of the loveliest and most perfect things I have heard sung by a soprano in a long time"
English Arts Chorale review, Edward Marston
“...and naughty Eve (wonderful Helen-Jane Howells)..."
The Guardian on Purcell The Fairy Queen, Glyndebourne Festival
“The arias chosen came mainly from Acis and Galtea, Guilio Cesare, Serse and Semele and it was soprano Helen-Jane Howells- heard in the previous Kempe concert with very different repertoire- who sang them with incomparable beauty of vocal treatment and passionate expression. Her dazzling coloratura alternating with highly sensual and often poignant lyricism was simply stunning"
The Stratford Herald
“Helen-Jane Howells, soprano, in her performance of songs by Strauss and Mahler, spun a beautiful line and showed off her glorious top register. The pianissimo ending of Mahler's Ging heut morgen was stunning"
The Farnham Herald
Review of the opera Love in Transit by Richard Arnell (role: 'Barbara', a diva!), “Whilst all the roles were very competently sung, the star of the performance, in more ways than one, was undoubtedly Helen-Jane Howells, the blonde ‘diva’. She has a beautiful clear soprano voice, and excellent diction. She is a singer to watch out for the future; already assured, confident in the command of her vocal range, and with a strong stage presence"
Leszek Marcinowicz, Capriccio
“She has a star studded career ahead of her”
Mary King, judge at the John Warner Competition
“The soloists Helen-Jane Howells and Douglas Rice-Bowen were at the top of their game and seemed to lift the response of the audience...Any confidence the choir may have lacked in the opening was quickly recovered by the example of Helen-Jane Howells, whose soaring line was radiant in tone and had a seemingly effortless delivery"
Mid-Sussex Times on Brahms Requiem, Mark Gale
“Awarded not only because of the beauty of her singing, but her professionalism throughout this competition”
The Russell Sheppard Scholarship
.
Barry Millington* for the Evening Standard , Tim Ashley for the Guardian and Robert Hugill for Planet Hugill, blog on Purcell King Arthur for the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh, July 2015
“...the cast was uniformly excellent. Helen-Jane Howells's Gossamer Beynon was well-observed and elegantly sung"
Opera Magazine, Rian Evans, June 2014
“...Howells delivering tinkling coloratura with a tea-set for percussion"
The Times 4* review of Under Milk Wood, April 2014, Anna Picard
“I have to give special mention to Paul Carey-Jones...and Helen-Jane Howells' chatty teen [Lily Smalls], as well as their combination as the bitter married couple Mr and Mrs Pugh"
Buzzmag online, review of Under Milk Wood (John Metcalf), April 2014, Heather Arnold
“In multiple roles as the flawed villagers, the singers Elizabeth Donovan, Helen-Jane Howells, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Paul Carey Jones, Karina Lucas, Richard Morris and Eamonn Mulhall are all excellent in getting the words across and capture a world of delight and regret, gossip and black humour".
The Telegraph 4* review of Under Milk Wood, April 2014, John Allison
“Much of the success of the choral works was due to the solo singing of sopranos Elin Manahan Thomas and Helen-Jane Howells, bass Robert Davies and tenor Nick Pritchard... These were voices attuned in tone and sentiment to the compactness and discipline of the chorus and orchestra, even when the vocal lines were decorated. It was a model lesson in early music practice and performance, conducted adroitly by David Hill”
South Wales Argus, Nigel Jarrett
“...and Helen-Jane Howells has half a dozen exquisite ones [arias], all on target, as the Science Teacher"
“The Science Teacher, H-J Howells, delivers several mesmerising numbers ('Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air)"
The Arts Desk and for Seen and Heard, on Bury Court Opera's production of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, Feb-March 2014, Roger Dunnett
“Phibbs music is seemingly transfixed by the text, especially as performed by Helen-Jane Howells and the Navarra String Quartet"
BBC Music Magazine, August 2013
“Howells...was fearless, even as temperatures and rain fell, singing with purity and honesty and no sign of shivering. Her ‘Remember me' in the famous Lament was heart-rending"
“Enchantingly pure, open singing from the leads Helen-Jane Howells as Dido and Elin Manahan Thomas as Belinda"
Observer & Telegraph on Dido & Aeneas in the Roman Baths with Florilegium at the Bath Festival May 2013, Fiona Maddocks & Michael White
“Soprano Helen-Jane Howells, an intrepid young singer... sings with sweetness and steel in The Canticle of the Rose, taking the ascents above the staff in stride and trusting her technique to enable her to successfully negotiate the labyrinthine twists of Mr. Phibbs’s formidable musical architecture. The purity of Ms. Howells’s tone introduces a suggestion of playful innocence into the dark world of Sitwell’s texts, and the array of emotions that she delivers reveals the subtleties of Mr. Phibbs’s music. The Canticle of the Rose is music of the consistently high quality that demands the best of the artists who perform it: the performance on this recording is nothing short of definitive"
Voix des Arts. June 2013 Full review here. Joseph Newsome
Times 4* review (Hilary Finch) “McCarthy’s production has actor Nia Roberts separated by a gauze from her alter ego, the soprano Helen-Jane Howells. They share Beckett’s text like the shifting light of an unstable psyche: both give superb performances, complemented by an electronic score and a stuttering monochrome video projection by Sandro Aguilar. Just two more shows: be sure to be there"
Times review of Vasco Mendonca's Ping with Music Theatre Wales, April 2013
“Helen-Jane Howells is an experienced soloist and Bach singer who performed her arias with a natural ease, her voice carrying in the sometimes difficult acoustic of the Cathedral. She was totally immersed in the music even when not singing"
Review of Bach St. John Passion in the Herts Advertiser (Mary Cook) April 2013
“It was a joy to hear Helen-Jane Howells' beautiful, clear soprano line"
Mid Sussex Times on Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Neil Jenkins and the Sussex Chorus, January 2013, Simon Austin
“A highlight for me of this work was the Domine Deus, in which the solo soprano (Helen-Jane Howells) duets with the oboe (Tony Robson, OAE). The matching of the two voices was perfect and both the soloists seemed to enjoy working together, this was apparent in their reactions to each other and from the music"
Bachtrack, on the concert with the OAE at Malta Cathedral, January 2013. Full review , Anthony Hart
“In the second half Robin Blaze was joined by the fine soprano Helen-Jane Howells for Bach's setting of Psalm 51"
The Times on La Nuova Musica 'Bach Unwrapped' at King's Place, January 2013, Neil Fisher
“Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of the evening was the opportunity to enjoy the vocal skills and musicianship of ... Helen-Jane Howells. Helen-Jane’s wonderful voice and unerring musicianship were heard to great effect in Strauss’s elegiac Four Last Songs. Here the voice becomes another strand in the masterly polyphonic texture, and the purity and expressiveness of Helen-Jane’s voice was ideal for this music. Vocal colour supported by beautiful harmonic changes amid a shimmering orchestral texture are the key to this work, and this blend was achieved to such perfection by soloist, orchestra and conductor, that members of the audience felt that they wanted to hear the music again – immediately!”
Review for the Tonbridge Philharmonic (24.11.12), Roger Everden
“Fine support came from sopranos Katherine Manley and Helen-Jane Howells (a very perky Spring in the masque of the seasons)"
The Times four-star review The Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort at the Spitalfields Festival. June 2012, Neil Fisher
“Both the soprano and alto soloists…were also chosen for a sound far removed from…the bulging voices of old fashioned oratorio singers. Here all was simple and clear, unpretentious and quite simply beautiful”. Excerpt from “Close to perfection”
Review of Bach St. John Passion with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Kraemer on 30th March 2012.
From the paper Fædrelandsvennen by Emil Otto Syvertsen.
“All the soloists sang with assurance and grace and were...at times deeply moving...It gave great pleasure as did the exquisite singing of Helen-Jane Howells"
Review in 'Seek Magazine' on JS Bach Johannes-Passion, at St. Mark's, Cambridge. March 2012.
“Soprano Helen-Jane Howells has a supple coloratura sound, gracefully phrased, a big voice when she really opens up"
The Bath Chronicle. Handel Messiah, Bath Abbey. Full review here, Peter Lloyd Williams
“...the aria soloists - Helen-Jane Howells, Robin Blaze, Catherine Hopper, Andrew Tortise and Stephen Loges - are riveting"
The Times. Bach St. Matthew Passion, Vocal Futures & OAE., Richard Morrison
“...especially when the energetic Navarra Quartet supported the colourful singing of Helen-
Jane Howells in his (Joseph Phibbs) impressive work The Canticle of the Rose"
Western Mail, link here. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 'Pre-Hear', November 26th 2011. For reviews from the Presteigne Festival click here
“The Kyrie knocked the socks off all who listened, in no small part to the wonderful entry of soprano Helen-Jane Howells – a ringing note cutting above all the orchestras fuss and choir’s pathos – another goose-pimple moment”
Bachtrack.com. Mozart ‘C Minor Mass’, Coventry Cathedral, Nov 2011, Arthur Keegan-Bole
“Huw Watkins was the commanding presence in a rewarding song-recital on Friday afternoon, his own 'Five Larkin Songs' delivered with piercing insight by soprano Helen-Jane Howells, the composer at the piano. Howells moved easily from the Purcellian coloratura which opens Britten’s 'On this Island' to the cabaret wit which concludes it. More Britten came with some of his folksong settings. The soloist’s eye-contact and body-language such effective vehicles. We also heard the premiere of Julian Philips’ busy, testing and organically unified 'Love Songs of Amy Lowell', and Sonnet III 'Alla Luna' by the eminent Lithuanian composer Zita Bruzaite, clearly and simply structured, Howells’ radiant soprano joined by deft oboist Helen Barker..."
Birmingham Post
“Distinctive and memorable...Majestic and uplifting"
Stratford Herald on 'Lent Unrelenting' at the Kempe Studios, April 2012
“Howells's 'Blute Nur', an unwinding coil of temperate loveliness"
The Arts Desk review of Bach St. Matthew Passion at the Royal Festival Hall, April 2011. Alexandra Coghlan
“Helen-Jane Howells, substituting the indisposed Susan Gritton, achieved a state of introspection and meditation. Howells was magnificent in 'Rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion' which she brought forth with the grace and sensuality required. Her performance of 'I know that my redeemer liveth' was truly moving"
Translation of concert review by Luis Alfonso Bes, ‘Heraldo de Aragón’, Zaragoza of Handel Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort directed by Paul McCreesh, December 2010.
“H-J Howells' soprano soared mightily into the apse of All Saints like the nightingale in the score"
The Argus, Louise Schweitzer
“...and Helen-Jane Howells's bell-like soprano were especially notable"
The Financial Times, 16 Dec 2010 (La Nuova Musica at Spitalfields Festival), Laura Battle
“The beauty and technical ease of Helen-Jane's wide-ranging voice and her sensitive interpretation of the texts kept the audience in wrapped attention throughout. This is surely a Soprano approaching the peak of her career with supreme confidence and worthy adoration of her audiences"
Grayston Burgess, Charterhouse Music Society on 'The Beauty of Troubled Mind' recital
“Helen-Jane Howells is a fine Amore, a trouser-suited youth sparking and prodding the action...”
Whats on Stage on Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea, Glyndebourne on Tour
“Your ‘Et incarnatus est’ on Saturday was one of the loveliest and most perfect things I have heard sung by a soprano in a long time"
English Arts Chorale review, Edward Marston
“...and naughty Eve (wonderful Helen-Jane Howells)..."
The Guardian on Purcell The Fairy Queen, Glyndebourne Festival
“The arias chosen came mainly from Acis and Galtea, Guilio Cesare, Serse and Semele and it was soprano Helen-Jane Howells- heard in the previous Kempe concert with very different repertoire- who sang them with incomparable beauty of vocal treatment and passionate expression. Her dazzling coloratura alternating with highly sensual and often poignant lyricism was simply stunning"
The Stratford Herald
“Helen-Jane Howells, soprano, in her performance of songs by Strauss and Mahler, spun a beautiful line and showed off her glorious top register. The pianissimo ending of Mahler's Ging heut morgen was stunning"
The Farnham Herald
Review of the opera Love in Transit by Richard Arnell (role: 'Barbara', a diva!), “Whilst all the roles were very competently sung, the star of the performance, in more ways than one, was undoubtedly Helen-Jane Howells, the blonde ‘diva’. She has a beautiful clear soprano voice, and excellent diction. She is a singer to watch out for the future; already assured, confident in the command of her vocal range, and with a strong stage presence"
Leszek Marcinowicz, Capriccio
“She has a star studded career ahead of her”
Mary King, judge at the John Warner Competition
“The soloists Helen-Jane Howells and Douglas Rice-Bowen were at the top of their game and seemed to lift the response of the audience...Any confidence the choir may have lacked in the opening was quickly recovered by the example of Helen-Jane Howells, whose soaring line was radiant in tone and had a seemingly effortless delivery"
Mid-Sussex Times on Brahms Requiem, Mark Gale
“Awarded not only because of the beauty of her singing, but her professionalism throughout this competition”
The Russell Sheppard Scholarship
.
