Birmingham Jazz Orchestra featuring special guests, Helena Debono and Charlie Bates

As part of their UK tour, vocalist Helena Debono and pianist/arranger Charlie Bates are joining forces with the Birmingham Jazz Orchestra to play music from their new album “A Thousand Nights”. The album has already received critical acclaim, with an album launch special on BBC Radio 3 and being made Track of The Week on Jazz FM. Expect to hear original songs and swinging arrangements of Helena and Charlie’s favourite standards, all accompanied by the ferocious Birmingham Jazz Orchestra.

Helena Biog

From South West London comes Helena Debono, a young Jazz/Soul/Pop vocalist. She has been captivating audiences with her emotional renditions of Jazz standards and her own original music since she was a teenager. Her natural, effortless vocals have already received acclaim amongst the UK Jazz scene and leaves audiences wanting to hear more.

Although classically trained and enjoying all genres of music, it was whilst attending the Arts Educational Schools in London that she discovered her love of Jazz and songwriting. She has performed at many venues including Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express Soho, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, Buckingham Palace and many more. Helena graduated with a BA (hons) first class degree in Jazz Music from Leeds College of Music. Helena was the female vocalist for The National Youth Jazz Orchestra between 2019-2020 and then became the vocal coach for NYJO. In 2021 Helena released her debut album ‘Right Here’ which has over 30 thousand streams. She is inspired by great vocalists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Barbra Streisand and many more.

Charlie Biog

Charlie attended the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he studied Jazz Piano and Composition. He graduated from the Conservatoire in 2017 with first class honours while also winning the Composition Prize (2016), Jazz Performance Prize and Deans’ Award for Exceptional Achievement (2017). He was a chair holder with both the Midland and National Youth Jazz Orchestra's.

Charlie is a multi-award-winning composer and arranger. After releasing his debut album 'Silhouettes', he was awarded the Dankworth Award for Jazz Composition. This was followed by the Eddie Harvey Arranger of The Year Award 2021 and then a prestigious Ivor Novello Award. His music has been played in venues all around the country and on BBC 4, BBC Radio 3 and Jazz FM. He spent a year as the composer-in-residence of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and has become a frequent guest conductor, composer and arranger with the ensembles all over Europe, most notably the NDR Big Band and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Elsewhere, Charlie continues to write music for television and media and work as a pianist, with performances all over Europe and live on BBC2.