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 art song, oratorio, opera, choral, chamber, and new music, both as a soloist and ensemble singer.
Her 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. Fotina was a soloist in the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s O Holy Saint Nicholas with the Artefact Ensemble in 2021, and was a featured soloist with the Boston Pops in the symphonic premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim, a Sondheim musical revue curated by James Lapine.
Ensemble credits include Grammy® award-winning Conspirare, the Grammy® award-winning Experiential Chorus, Grammy® nominated groups Skylark, Clarion, the Saint Tikhon Choir, and PaTRAM, as well as Cappella Romana, Coro Volante, Alium Spiritum, and the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, among many others. Fotina has recorded with these groups on the Reference Recordings, Chandos, Cappella Romana, Delos, Pentatone, Ablaze Records, Naxos and Cincinnati Fanfare labels, resulting in one Grammy® win (Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with the Experiential Chorus) and five Grammy® nominations (The Hope of Loving with Conspirare, Kastalky’s Requiem with the Saint Tikhon Choir, Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy with The Saint Tikhon Choir, It’s a Long Way with the Skylark Ensemble, and Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil with the Clarion Choir).
Fotina is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM), the Cincinnati College-Conservatory (MM, DMA), and is a Fulbright scholar, having completed a post-graduate diploma specializing in Russian vocal music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. The culmination of this work was the creation of www.RussianAriaResource.com, a lyric diction resource for Russian operatic arias. She is passionate about training and mentoring the next generation of singers and serves as Associate Professor of Voice at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.
“...beautiful sound, simple and pure”
“Performances... by Naumenko, soprano, and Barrad, baritone, were also excellent and offered insight into the show’s greater theme”
“Mlynek’s tenor was nicely complemented by [Fotina Naumenko’s] sweet voice”
“The exquisite exaltation of Johnson’s “All of Us,” begun by the angelic trinity of Mela Dailey, Stefanie Moore, and Fotina Naumenko, then lifted to the rafters by the full choir in gospel fervor...”
“Castiglioni’s “Cantus planus” features 24 epigrams by 17th-century German mystic Angelus Silesius, set for two sopranos (here, Fotina Naumenko and Mary Bonhag, both in radiant voice) delicately supported by a mixed chamber ensemble (conducted by Gemma New). Sunday’s performance was a stunner.”
“it [the music] does occasionally burst into celebratory fire – as with the wonderfully joyous The Angel Cried Out (the angelic voice of soprano Fotina Naumenko glistening in this bright musical sunlight) by Boris Ledkovsky...”
“The singing of the Patram Institute Singers is musically and vocally magnificent, with the solo work of soprano Fotina Naumenko infusing Ledkovsky’s The Angel Cried Out with an exquisite sound. ”
“The intricate musical layers of Gladsome Light (with radiant soprano soloist, Fotina Naumenko) are the aural equivalent of shimmering flakes of mica or the hide-and-seek patterns of flickering red in an opalescent stone.”
“[The concert] began with David Lang’s stunningly simple and lovely “just” (2014), a setting drawn from the Song of Songs, in a beautiful performance by three singers, Mary Bonhag, Fotina Naumenko and Jazimina MacNeil”
“Throughout the program, there are moments of exquisite choral beauty, punctuated by outstanding solo contributions: by soprano Fotina Naumenko...”
“Soprano Fotina Naumenko sings a fleeting solo and the end is like an ascending dove soaring to a stunning high B with astonishing finesse...”
“Two high sopranos (Fotina Naumenko and Mary Bonhag) sang as paired cherubs, sometimes trading only two pitches, sometimes widely separated as tune and descant or competing in spectacular virtuosic hi-jinks. Seemingly inexhaustible, they wisely (and discreetly) monitored their pitch in preparation for several perilous high entries out of thin air. ”
“The soprano Fotina Naumenko is sublime in her contribution: strong, secure, and full of sonic beauty.”