The Belgian soprano Céline Scheen came to international attention through her acclaimed recording of the music for Gérard Corbiau’s film Le Roi danse with Musica Antiqua Köln under Reinhard Goebel. Since then, she has performed regularly in opera productions and at renowned concert halls.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season have included performances with André Henrich at the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht and with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata in Rouen and at the MusikTheater an der Wien. She also returns to the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and in the autumn 2026 performs in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Müpa Budapest.
She has worked with Baroque ensembles such as the Ricercar Consort under Philippe Pierlot, the Cappella Mediterranea under Leonardo García-Alarcón, the Ensemble La Fenice under Jean Tubéry, the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel under Andrea Marcon and Le Concert des Nations under Jordi Savall.
Since 2010 she has collaborated intensively with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, and since 2016 she has enjoyed a similar collaboration with Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata, including performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Important opera appearances have included Gluck’s Alceste, Cavalli’s Eliogabalo and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte under René Jacobs at La Monnaie in Brussels, a new production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis at the Théâtre de Caen, Philonoé in Lully’s Bellérophon, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Frasquita (Carmen), Thérèse (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Haydn’s Lo speziale and Menotti’s The Telephone, or L’Amour à trois.
Her concert repertory includes Bach’s St John Passion, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s ‘Coronation’ Mass and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
She has participated in recordings of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers with Ensemble Desmarest under Ronan Khalil, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with Pygmalion under Raphaël Pichon and Alla Napoletana, La Torre del Oro, Himmelsmusik and Wonder Women with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata. She has also released the solo albums Dolcissimo Sospiro (2024) and Lagrime (February 2026) with the gamba player Philippe Pierlot.
Céline Scheen studied at the conservatory in Mons, the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels and the Guildhall School of Music in London. Since 2019 she has been a professor at the Conservatoire royal de Liège.
