Natalia Stepaniak: From Bandura to the Opera Stage
Natalia Stepaniak is a Ukrainian opera singer (soprano) from Lviv, a soloist of the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, and a laureate of vocal competitions. Her artistic path is marked by a rare combination of two professions for an opera singer: before becoming a vocalist, she obtained a solid professional education as a bandurist. Following her studies in Lviv and Vienna, she performed on the operatic and concert stages of Austria, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria. Upon returning to Ukraine, she combined her performance career with educational and organizational activities, founding the Coloratura Opera Lab, an opera studio for young performers, in Lviv.
Childhood and First Steps on Stage
Natalia Stepaniak grew up in Lviv in a family connected to music: her mother is a violinist who taught at Lviv Music School No. 10. The singer herself has repeatedly emphasized that she did not dream of an operatic career from an early age and was not a vocalist from the start. An unexpected circumstance brought her to music: at the age of three, while playing with her brother, she hit her head and began to stutter. A speech therapist advised her parents to enroll the child in singing classes, and choir rehearsals helped overcome this problem.
From the age of three to fifteen, Natalia was a member of the vocal and choreographic ensemble "Pysanka," where children practiced singing, dancing, handicrafts, drawing, and foreign languages. By the age of four, she had already performed on the stage of the National Palace of Arts "Ukraina," and later became a soloist of the ensemble. Together with the troupe, she toured many European countries, including Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. According to the singer, this early stage experience freed her from stage fright and taught her how to work in an ensemble.
The Bandura as a First Profession
Her mother wanted her daughter to learn to play the violin, but the instrument did not appeal to the young girl. A turning point came during a presentation of the bandura class at her school, after which Natalia chose this specific instrument. She transferred to Music School No. 10, where she studied in the class of L. Bakovchuk. After winning second place at a regional competition, the young bandurist caught the attention of a jury member, the renowned Lviv bandura teacher Liudmyla Posikira, who invited her to the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Music Boarding School.
During these years, Natalia Stepaniak also performed with the bandura capella "Dzvinka" and as a solo bandurist with the dance ensemble "Sonechko," with which she toured Europe once again. She graduated from the music school as an external student and entered the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, majoring in Folk Instruments (Bandura). At the academy, she earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Music, specializing as a bandurist.
The bandura remained an important part of the singer's artistic biography even when vocal performance took center stage. In 2008, she won a competition organized by the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation, performing with her own accompaniment on the bandura. Natalia Stepaniak received a scholarship from the President of Ukraine as well as a grant from the Spivakov Foundation. In 2009, she gave a solo recital at the Potocki Palace in Warsaw, organized by the Polish foundation Cultura Animi.
The Path to Singing
A decisive shift in her professional focus occurred during her studies at the academy. In her second year, Natalia Stepaniak began studying solo singing in the class of Ihor Kushpler, a prominent Lviv baritone, soloist of the Lviv Opera, and educator. Later, she completed her studies at the academy with a second major in Solo Singing, thereby becoming a graduate with two distinct specializations.
Ihor Kushpler died tragically in a car accident shortly after his student's first solo recital, when she was in her third year. Among her other mentors, the singer names Myron Lukavetsky, an opera class and acting teacher, and Zoryana Kushpler, a soloist of the Vienna State Opera, with whom she consulted during masterclasses.
Studies and Career in Austria
Natalia Stepaniak continued her vocal training in Vienna, where she lived for about five years. She enrolled in the master's opera program at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien) and completed her master's degree in 2019. In addition to vocal training, the program included intensive work with coaches on diction and pronunciation in various languages, as well as preparation in management and business etiquette. For her final master's examination, she prepared fourteen art songs and six arias in Ukrainian, English, German, French, Italian, and Bulgarian. Her master's thesis was devoted to comparing the interpretations of the role of Mimì in Giacomo Puccini's opera "La bohème" by Solomiya Krushelnytska and Anna Netrebko.
While still a student, Natalia Stepaniak performed the role of Servilia in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "La clemenza di Tito" at the Akzent Theater in Vienna and the role of Morgana in George Frideric Handel's opera "Alcina" at the MuTh Theater in Vienna; both productions were conducted by Niels Muus. During the 2015–2016 season, she sang the title role of Violetta in a children's version of Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata" at the Dschungel Wien theater and the role of Papagena in a children's version of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the Mozarthaus Vienna.
In the summer of 2016, she became a soloist at the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy (Wiener Philharmoniker Sommerakademie), where she sang the part of Despina in Mozart's "Così fan tutte." That same summer marked her debuts at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Musikverein in Graz, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, and the Odeïon hall in Salzburg. With the orchestra of the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy under the baton of Michel Werba, she performed at a morning concert at Hunyadi Castle in Austria.
In 2017, Natalia Stepaniak became a finalist in the Competizione dell'Opera vocal competition in Linz. In the summer of that year, she performed the role of Minerva in Jacques Offenbach's operetta "Orpheus in the Underworld" at the summer festival in Bad Hall under the direction of Ernst Theis. In December 2017, she took part in the premiere of Handel's "Alcina" at the Stara Zagora State Opera in Bulgaria, reprising the role of Morgana under Niels Muus.
Viennese operetta occupies a special place in the artist's repertoire. She took part in an operetta evening at the MuTh Theater with the Con Fuoco Orchestra, and in Graz she debuted with the rarely performed aria of Fiammetta from Franz von Suppé's operetta "Boccaccio," having learned the part in just three days.
In July 2018, Natalia Stepaniak made her debut in the Italian bel canto repertoire, performing the role of Adina in Gaetano Donizetti's opera "L'elisir d'amore" at the Lirica in Circolo summer festival in the Italian city of Crema.
Cultural Diplomacy
During her time in Austria, the singer actively represented Ukrainian culture abroad. She performed several times at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, and in 2018 she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Cultural Diplomacy. On June 5, 2018, Natalia Stepaniak performed the National Anthem of Ukraine at the opening ceremony of the Ukrainian Consulate in Graz. She was also an invited guest opera soloist at the opening of the Ukrainian Ball in Vienna.
Soloist of the Odesa Opera
Following the completion of her studies in Vienna in 2019, Natalia Stepaniak returned to Ukraine. That same year, she became a soloist with the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, where she debuted as Violetta Valéry in Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La traviata." The role of Violetta, which she had first performed in Vienna in a children's adaptation, thus became her first major role on a primary Ukrainian operatic stage.
Chamber Programs in Lviv
Alongside her work in the theater, Natalia Stepaniak regularly develops chamber music programs, several of which have been presented at the Lviv Organ Hall. Prior to moving to Odesa, her solo project "Reincarnation" was held at the Lviv Philharmonic, where she acted not only as a performer, but also as an initiator, director, and manager.
In June 2019, the singer performed in an unusual setting for her repertoire, singing Baroque arias accompanied by organist Nadiya Velychko. In March 2020, together with pianist Dmytro Mykytyn and violinist Oleksandra Moroz, she presented the program "Viennese Operetta. The Best," an initiative suggested by the director of the Organ Hall, Ivan Ostapovych.
In September 2020, an evening of art songs performed by Natalia Stepaniak and pianist Iryna Kirchanova took place at the Organ Hall. The program included twelve chamber pieces by Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, and Myroslav Skoryk, which she performed in three languages. The final segment of the evening featured Skoryk's Ukrainian works. Reflecting on this program, the singer emphasized that every art song is a "miniature opera," and singing in Ukrainian requires exceptional skill from a vocalist.
Coloratura Opera Lab
A major focus of Natalia Stepaniak's work has been supporting young opera singers. During her studies in Vienna, she noticed that her Ukrainian peers frequently reached out to her for guidance on repertoire selection, aria diction, audition preparation, and resume building. In European institutions, these skills are typically acquired within opera studios—programs based at major theaters that allow conservatory graduates to continue working with coaches while gaining practical stage experience.
Aiming to create a similar opportunity in Ukraine, she founded the Coloratura Opera Lab project in Lviv, which launched on October 14, 2019. The studio model provided each participant with guidance from four coaches specializing in vocal technique, diction, repertoire, and acting. The initiative offered masterclasses focused on Italian bel canto, the Mozartian style, and the nuances of verismo, alongside lectures featuring jury members of the 5th Solomiya Krushelnytska International Vocal Competition. Young conductors, pianists, and directors later joined the project as well. From its inception, the initiative received support from Vasyl Vovkun, General Director of the Lviv National Opera.
The studio's first large-scale project was an open-air youth production of Mozart's "Così fan tutte" at the Botanical Garden of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Over seventy singers from across Ukraine auditioned, with thirteen selected for principal roles across two alternating casts. Yevhen Lavrenchuk was chosen as director, Yaroslav Shemet as conductor, and Natalia Stepaniak herself was slated to perform the role of Fiordiligi. The premiere was scheduled for July 2020, though pandemic-related quarantine restrictions put the timeline at risk of postponement.
Repertoire and Artistic Philosophy
Natalia Stepaniak has a soprano voice, and within the operatic repertoire she specializes primarily in lyric roles. Her body of work includes roles in operas by Mozart, Handel, Donizetti, and Verdi, as well as in operetta. Additionally, she turns to Baroque music, particularly works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel, as well as art song repertoire ranging from German lieder and French mélodies to pieces by Ukrainian composers. She links her performance principles to a pursuit of interpretative depth, noting in an interview that she dislikes superficiality in music as much as in people.
Significance of Her Work
Natalia Stepaniak's artistic trajectory reflects the defining traits of a generation of Ukrainian vocalists shaped at the intersection of domestic and European musical traditions. A bandurist by initial training and an opera singer by vocation, she received comprehensive schooling in Lviv, gained practical stage experience across Austria, Italy, and Bulgaria, and returned to Ukraine determined to pass that knowledge on to younger colleagues. Her synthesis of solo work at the Odesa National Opera, chamber concerts, and the founding of Lviv's first European-model opera studio establishes her as a prominent figure in contemporary Ukrainian musical life.
