Fotina Naumenko

Fotina Naumenko, soprano, has been praised for her “radiant voice” (Boston Globe), described as both “angelic” (MusicWeb International) and “capable of spectacular virtuosic hi-jinks” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Fotina’s singing encompasses a wide variety of vocal genres including oratorio, opera, art song, choral and contemporary music, both as a soloist and chamber musician. 

Festival appearances have included Ravinia, Constella, Olavfestdagene, and Tanglewood. Fotina’s performances of David Lang’s just and Castiglioni’s Cantus Planus at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music were hailed as “a beautiful performance” by the New York Times and “a stunner” by the Boston Globe. Recent oratorio solos have included Benedict Sheehan’s O Gladsome Light (Artefact Ensemble), Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy (DC’s Cathedral Choral Society), J.S. Bach’s Ascension Oratorio and B Minor Mass (Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Vocal Arts Ensemble), Chesnokov’s My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord (Cappella Romana), Orff’s Carmina Burana (American University Chorus), Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor and Handel’s Messiah (Winchester Arts Chorale). Fotina was a featured soloist with the Boston Pops for the symphonic premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim, a Sondheim musical revue curated by James Lapine. 

Ensemble credits include Grammy® award-winning Conspirare, the Experiential Chorus, Grammy® nominated groups Skylark, Clarion, the Saint Tikhon Choir, and PaTRAM, as well as Cappella Romana, Coro Volante, Alium Spiritum, and Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, among many others. Fotina has recorded with these groups on the Reference Recordings, Chandos, Delos, Ablaze Records, Naxos and Cincinnati Fanfare labels. 

Fotina is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (Cincinnati, OH), and the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of St. Petersburg, Russia, where she completed a Fulbright grant specializing in Russian vocal repertoire. She is in demand as a Slavonic and Russian diction clinician, and founded www.RussianAriaResource.com to make the repertoire more accessible to non-native speakers. Fotina has served on the voice faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA, since fall of 2018.