Fotina Naumenko

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 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 sang 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). Her solo debut album, Bespoke Songs, was released on the New Focus Recording label in July 2024 and is available on all streaming platforms.

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. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband Steve, their son Gabriel, and two cats, Pumpkin and Noodle. 

www.fotinanaumenko.com