Contralto Helena Rasker graduated with the highest distinction from the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, the Netherlands. She continued her studies at the Tanglewood Music center in the USA and at present works with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Helena Rasker has sung with opera companies, orchestras and ensembles including ROH Covent Garden, the Netherlands Opera, 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, ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg and the Chamber Orchestras of Geneva and Lausanne.

She worked with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Fabio Biondi, Michel Corboz, Christian Zacharias, Michael Boder, Oliver Knussen, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Marc Albrecht, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jaap van Zweden, Pascal Rophé, Hartmut Haenchen, Paolo Carignani and Jonathan Stockhammer.

Helena Raskers repertoire spans from baroque to contemporary, and from chambermusic to oratorio and opera. She performs works such as the grand oratoria of J.S. Bach, Händel, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Duruflé and Honegger, songcycles and symphonies of Mahler, Shostakovitsch, Frank Martin, Wagner and Stockhausen, and chambermusic of Brahms, Ravel, Schoenberg, Sciarrino, Gubaidulina, Rob Zuidam and Luigi Nono.

Her opera repertoire includes roles in Into the little Hill/George Benjamin, Lulu/Alban Berg, Moses und Aron/Schoenberg, Rêves d’un Marco Polo/Vivier, Zauberflöte/Mozart, Elektra/Strauss, Guillaume Tell/Rossini and Die Walküre/Wagner.

She created leading roles in the worldpremieres of Morgen und Abend/Georg Friedrich Haas, Thyeste/Van Vlijmen, After Life/Michel van der Aa, Adam In Ballingschap/Rob Zuidam, Legende/Wagemans, Waiting for Miss Monroe/Robin de Raaff, Laïka/Martijn Padding and the chamberopera Troparion/Rob Zuidam, written especially for her.

Helena Raskers performed as soloist at festivals including the Salzburger Festspiele, Holland Festival, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival Misteria Paschalia Krakow and the Melbourne Festival. She participated in radio-, CD-, DVD- and television-recordings throughout Europe.