TWO charities serving East Hampshire will benefit from a performance in Alton next week by an operatic singer.

Joanna Weeks’ voice was heard when she appeared on Prince Charles’ televised 60th birthday party, and she is about to embark on a tour with opera cabaret show Opera Naked.

She has also performed with Opera North and Opera South, sung in the Orkneys with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, in London for Opera Holland Park and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in far-off Vietnam at the Hanoi Opera House.

As a soloist, Jo – a former winner of the Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Prize at the Trinity College of Music – has also performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and both Winchester and Canterbury Cathedrals.

And her next stop is St Lawrence Church, Alton, where music lovers are in for a treat when Jo gives a recital on the theme of her recent travels, with her professional accompanist, Benedict Lewis-Smith, a former organ scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford.

No matter how far she travels, Jois a local girl through and through with a special affection for Hampshire, where she grew up as a child.

And she is keen to support two charities devoted to providing support for individuals and families living in and around Alton, Whitehill and Petersfield.

The concert will support Home-Start WeyWater, which offers help and guidance to families, and the Rosemary Foundation which provides a hospice-at-home service for patients in the later stages of life-threatening conditions.

Jo and Benedict will perform Around the World in Twenty Songs at St Lawrence Church, Alton, on October 3, at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced £10, are available from Waterstone’s in Alton or on the door.