Alexandra Achillea moves between musical worlds, exploring the meeting point of opera, old and new music, and the living traditions of folk song. A Greek mezzo-soprano based in London, she has developed an eclectic practice as a performer, arranger and curator, collaborating with ensembles, composers, visual artists and theatre-makers across disciplines. The forthcoming season finds her at the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, and the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera.
Performance highlights include a European tour with Martha Argerich as a soloist with the Peace Orchestra, appearing at several renowned venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium Manzoni, and Teatro Galli; BBC Proms at The Glasshouse with the Royal Northern Sinfonia; Dallapiccola's Goethe-Lieder at the BBC Total Immersion: Italian Radicals at the Barbican; and Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130: Du fond de l'abîme at the Barbican Hall. In 2022 she made her Carnegie Weill Hall recital debut with pianist Élisabeth Pion, and later that year, they performed Messiaen’s epic cycle Harawi at Barbican’s Milton Court, which they regularly revive ever since. Her performances have been broadcast on BNR Radio Bulgaria, BBC Radio 3, and RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera.
She has appeared at international festivals including Wiener Festwochen, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Musicon Durham, Oropa Music Festival, Chipping Campden Festival, Cambridge Summer Music Festival, Music Village Festival, Kournos Music Festival, Plovdiv Chamber Music Festival, and esteemed venues like Southbank Centre, Snape Maltings, Cafe Oto and Wigmore Hall.
On the opera stage, Alexandra has performed the roles of Sister Helen Prejean in the London stage premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, The Queen in Ethel Smyth’s Fete Galante and Signora Guidotti in Rota’s I due timidi (Guildhall Opera). She has created two roles in chamber operas for Opera Makers, as well as premieres at Tête à Tête and Brighton Fringe. In 2023, she joined the Glyndebourne Opera Chorus. In collaboration with Figure Ensemble, she performed a staged reimagining of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater reworked by Alex Mills, alongside Dame Emma Kirkby.
Working closely with composers, she regularly develops and premieres new work written for her. Recent projects include premieres for Wiener Festwochen, nonclassical’s 20th anniversary at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, and Magnum Opus Showcase with Britten Sinfonia.
Beyond performing, she devises and curates programmes. Increasingly drawn to the relationship between cross-cultural performance and embodied storytelling, Alexandra has also begun developing her own work as a creator and director. Her critically acclaimed music-theatre production MOURN, in collaboration with Figure Ensemble, a meeting of Balkan and Baroque laments, brings together centuries of musical mourning into a ritual of grief, inheritance and collective memory.
Alongside her classical work, she is a founding member of Alkanna Graeca, a vocal trio exploring the polyphonic traditions of the Balkans and Black Sea through raw vocal harmonies, expansive soundscapes and free improvisation. Their work draws on the expressive power of oral traditions while finding new possibilities within them. Their debut EP, UARA, will be released in November 2026 on Flung.
Her interdisciplinary work spans sound art, installation and film, performing and consulting on projects for the V&A, Tate Britain, Palmer Gallery, One Room Gallery, The Showroom and ArtNexus Singapore, and a collaboration with NPK Studio on Illuminated River, the long-term public art installation illuminating bridges along the Thames.
Her voice also features across film and media, with credits for BFI, Audible, Netflix, HBO and the Venice Film Festival. Her collaborations include composers Ben Frost, Daniel Inzani, Johnny Flynn, Fatima Al Qadiri and composer duo David Ridley and Aaron May.
Her accolades include the 2023 Guildhall Gold Medal, twice reaching the finals of the Maria Callas Foundation Competition, and semi-finals of the Ferrier Awards. She has been Artist in Residence with Britten Pears Arts, VOCE Centre and Samling Institute.
An alumna of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Alexandra holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Studies and an Artist Masters in Opera Studies, and in 2023/24 returned as a Vocal Fellow, co-leading a project for the creation of new vocal music. She also studied Musicology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Historical Performance at the Early Music Centre of the Athens Conservatoire.
