Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Nataliia Kukhar is an ensemble member of the Aalto Theater Essen for the 2023/2024 season, where she appears as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Sacerdotessa (Aida) and Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) under the baton of Andrea Sanguineti, Maffio Orsini (Luzcrezia Borgia) under Tommaso Turchetta, and Catarina in Tatjana Gürbaca’s new production of Fausto by Louise Bertin, conducted by Andreas Spering.
Nataliia was a member of the International Opera Studio OperAvenir at Theater Basel from 2021-2023, where she sang Rosina in Nikolaus Habjan’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Hélio Vida, and Maddalena in Vincent Huguet’s production of Rigoletto under Michele Spotti. Other highlights during her time at Theater Basel include Thibault in Don Carlos, Ein Page der Herodias in Herbert Fritsch’s production of Salome, conducted by Clemens Heil and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.
In the summer of 2023, Nataliia was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation of the Bayreuth Festival.
In the summer of 2022 she made her debut in the Konzerthaus Berlin under the baton of Oksana Lyniv. That year she also sang the mezzo-soprano solo in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regio Opera Festival in Torino under Andriy Yurkevych.
In December 2021 and 2022 Nataliia sang concerts with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in the Stadtcasino Basel under John Fiore and Nill Venditti.
Between 2018-2021 she was a participant of The Opera Academy Young Talent Development Programme of the Teatr Wielki, as part of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. There she worked with Olga Pasichnyk, Eytan Pessen, Matthias Rexroth, Izabela Kłosińska, Hedwig Fassbender, René Massis, Mariusz Kwiecień, Tomasz Konieczny, Ewa Zeuner, Thomas Lausmann, Lech Napierała, and Florence Daguerre de Hureaux.
In the 2019/2020 season she made her debut as Rosina in Krakow Opera under the baton of Tomasz Tokarczyk, followed by her Polish National Opera debut as Sister in Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel under Kazushi Ono, as well as Eduige in Rodelinda at the Polish Royal Opera under Krzysztof Garstka.
In 2020 at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, Nataliia sang Cloridoro and Proserpina in L’empio punito by Melani in the production of Silvia Paoli under Mariangiola Martello.
In December 2020 she sang the New Year’s Eve Gala under Patrick Fournillier at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw.
In May 2019 she made her debut in the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio with the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw under the baton of Michał Klauza.
In 2019 Nataliia participated in the Exzellenz Labor Oper Course.
She gave her operatic debut on the stage of the Lviv National Opera in April 2015 as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.
She was a finalist at the 10th International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera “Pietro Antonio Cesti”.
From February to July 2018 she was a Fellow of the “Gaude Polonia” Program of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. In the 2016/2017 season she was a soloist at the Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theatre. She graduated from the Lviv National Music Academy.
In 2014 Nataliia participated in a masterclass with Montserrat Caballé. She has been mentored in her singing by Olga Pasichnyk since 2017.