Fotina Naumenko

Fotina Naumenko, soprano, is a GRAMMY®-nominated artist 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, art song, choral, chamber, opera, 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, 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. Her debut solo album, Bespoke Songs, is dedicated to showcasing contemporary vocal chamber music, featuring world premiere recordings of newly-written musical works for soprano voice and mixed instrumental ensembles, on lyrics by female authors. Bespoke Songs was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY® in the category of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

       In addition to The Thirteen, ensemble credits include Skylark, Conspirare, the Artefact Ensemble, the Experiential Chorus, Clarion, the Saint Tikhon Choir, PaTRAM, 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 seven GRAMMY® nominations (The Hope of Loving with Conspirare, Kastalky’s Requiem and Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy with The Saint Tikhon Choir, It’s a Long Way and Clear Voices in the Dark with the Skylark Ensemble, Benedict Sheehan’s Akathist with the Artefact 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. Fotina is in demand as a clinician for Slavonic and Russian diction and is the founder 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.