Biography
Out of 4,000 entries, mezzo-soprano Stephania Romaniuk won the highest honour, the "Rose Bowl", in the 2015 Calgary Performing Arts Festival. She is the Grand Prix winner of the First International Competition of Ukrainian Retro Music, held in L'viv, Ukraine in 2015, and represented the Intermountain Region in the 2016 NATSAA National Semi-Finals in Chicago. Summer 2016 closed on a high note with Ms Romaniuk performing Ukrainian folk songs and popular standards in the 2,500-seat Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium as the opening act for the best-selling Ukrainian recording artist of all time and national heroine, Ruslana.
Ms Romaniuk participated in a month of studies in Paris at the 2017 European American Music Alliance - Nadia Boulanger Institute, studying advanced musicianship with disciples of the acclaimed 20th century teacher, Nadia Boulanger and her methodology. With these advanced studies in counterpoint, keyboard harmony, analysis, and score-reading, Ms Romaniuk began graduate studies in Fall 2019 at the Eastman School of Music, with a research focus on music listening in outreach education settings.
The 2017-18 season saw Ms Romaniuk making her debut with the Bow Valley Chorus as mezzo-soprano soloist in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, as well as returning to the Cowtown Opera Company as a roster artist and in the world premiere of Opera Disrupted. She joined the roster of young artists participating in the 2017 Mountain View Connection Summer Festival, focusing on works of Barber, Montsalvatge, Massenet, and Debussy, participating in masterclasses with Canadian baritone Brett Polegato. She will also perform for the «Незабутня Квітка» celebratory concert in New York City, for the Ukrainian World Congress 50th Anniversary Gala in Toronto, and in "U-Fest", the inaugural Edmonton Ukrainian Festival. Ms Romaniuk continues her arts and humanitarian advocacy work in local recitals, and as an apprentice artist of the Vocal Arts Institute of Alberta.
Ms Romaniuk has performed with the Calgary Civic Symphony (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - conductor Rolf Bertsch), Calgary Youth Orchestra (Scriabin's First Symphony - conductor Edmond Agopian), and in an educational concert for youth with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (Alfie and the Lost Treasure - conductor Adam Johnson). Ms Romaniuk also debuted as a soloist with the Vesnivka Choir (Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival - conductor Kvitka Kondracki) and in recital for Calgary Opera's summer music festival "Opera in the Village" and Calgary's Mountain View Connection, a recital series dedicated to song and chamber music. With the Calgary Bach Society she has sung Erbarme Dich in concert, and as the alto soloist in the Duruflé Requiem.
Ms Romaniuk has attended the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy, OperaWorks in Los Angeles, and Vancouver International Song Institute. She received a Jacqueline Desmarais Scholarship for Young Canadian Opera Singers to work with Christa Ludwig, Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Helmut Deutsch, Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, and Rudolf Jansen in the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria.
Concerned about the passive listening habits pervading modern audiences, Ms Romaniuk founded the website howtolistentoclassicalmusic.com, which encourages and enables audience members to take greater responsibility for their music-listening experience.
Ms Romaniuk recently completed the Advanced Performance Certificate Program at the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, Canada and currently studies with contralto Heather Meyers at the Vocal Arts Institute of Alberta. She is also an alumna of the Eastman School of Music.
For more information, or to discuss performance opportunities, please be in touch here.