Welsh-Ukrainian soprano Natalya Romaniw has become the new Honorary Patron of Mid Wales Opera.

Born in Swansea, Romaniw has built an international career at houses including the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper Berlin, English National Opera, and Scottish Opera. She was named Young Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards and won the Singer Award at the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. Her competition wins include First Prize and the Lovelady Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, as well as a win at the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she received the school’s Gold Medal in her final year.

“I’m really delighted to become a patron for Mid Wales Opera, it’s something that feels particularly special to me, having grown up in Wales myself, and one of the things I really love about Mid Wales Opera is that they take opera out of the big cities and the major opera houses, and they bring it directly into smaller towns, schools, communities and to people who perhaps wouldn’t otherwise have the chance or experience to see it or hear it,” Romaniw said, per an official press release. “I think that Mid Wales Opera are doing a wonderful job by planting that seed, instilling it in all of these small communities and towns around Wales, giving people the chance. They do a huge amount of work with young people and emerging artists and I’m really a big advocate of that. I think opera can sometimes feel like it’s a bit of an exclusive world, and it really shouldn’t, it belongs to everyone. And so I’m generally really proud to be joining Mid Wales Opera as a patron. I’m very excited to support them.”

The patronage ties a Welsh artist with an international profile to a company focused on making opera accessible to audiences across Wales and the Borders while giving young artists opportunities to develop their careers.