Nataliia Stets

Conductors

Nataliia Stets is a Ukrainian conductor and Music Director of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.

Stets received her professional education at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv, studying opera and symphony conducting with Ihor Palkin, Alin Vlasenko, and Svyatoslav Lytvynenko. She started her career in Kyiv. After holding the role of chief conductor at Svitanok-Orchestra from 2015 to 2019, Nataliia was subsequently invited to the position of conductor at the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra from 2019 till the end of 2021. In August 2021 Nataliia conducted the internationally broadcasted concert for the celebration ceremony of the 30th Independence Day of Ukraine. In 2017 Nataliia started to work with Maestra Oksana Lyniv as an assistant chief conductor at Opera Graz and assistant at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and LvivMozArt Festival.

In 2022 Nataliia signed a contract at Theater Bielefeld (Germany) as a conductor and musical assistant. In October 2022 she got a scholarship from Sächsische Akademie der Künste in Dresden. In season 2023 she had her debut in Germany with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Elbland Philharmony Sachsen, and conducted concerts with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine at Moers Klingt 2022 festival, Konzerthaus Berlin, Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, and at Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. She conducted the Ukrainian premiere of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle as well as the world premieres of the opera Ye.forever by Viktoriia Shynkarenko and the opera Obsessed by Myroslav Volynskyi. In November 2023 Nataliia conducted the world premiere of Lei non sa chi sono io by Paola Magnanini in Teatro Coccia di Novara, Italy, and in December 2023 she conducted the Ukrainian premiere of Family Album, a contemporary opera by Polish composer Jerzy Kornowicz in Kyiv and Lviv.

In May 2024 as musical director of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, she cooperated with Goethe-Institut Ukraine performing Schönberg’s Suite op. 29 and Pierrot lunaire with the National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata. With the same orchestra, she performed two mono-operas by Vitaly Hubarenko: Tenderness and Solitude in June 2024.

Her collaborations with other orchestras include the National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Italy), Symphony Orchestra of the Odesa Opera House, Kaunas Citi Orchestra (Lithuania), RTV Slovenian Symphony Orchestra, Oper Graz (Austria), Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Opernhaus Bielefeld, Elbland-Philharmonie Sachsen (Germany), Filharmonia Kameralna. im. Witolda Lutosławskiego w Łomży, Dedalo Ensemble Brescia (Italy), Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Kyiv Soloists National Chamber Ensemble, National Presidential Orchestra of Ukraine, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Academic Orchestra of Folk and Popular Music of Ukrainian Radio, Baroque Chapel Orchestra of LNMA, and Ukrainian Festival Orchestra, among others.

Awards

In April 2023 Nataliia Stets became a laureate (1st prize) of the International Conducting Competition Citta di Brescia — Giancarlo Facchinetti (Italy), a competition specialized in music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Selected works

Béla Bartók, Bluebeard’s Castle

Performed by Nataliia Stets (conductor), Maria Antonevska (Judit), Vladyslav Fominych (Herzog), National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata

April 2023, Kyiv

youtu.be/2dTdw7EsMWk

Mykhailo Chedryk, Sonare for Ensemble №1, Sonare for Ensemble №2, Sound Structure for Ensemble №1

Performed by Nataliia Stets (conductor), Ihor Yermak (flute), Dmytro Pashynskyi (clarinet and bass clarinet in B), Taras Zdaniuk (violin), Elisabeth Roiter (viola), Denys Karachevtsev (cello), Osokin Viktor (double bass)

October 2023, Dresden

youtu.be/k_unNTa5zjs?si=cXmoRzMP6NYpWC-R

Jerzy Kornowicz, Family Album for soprano, countertenor, string orchestra and video projection (2023)

Performed by Anastasia Povazhna (soprano), Stanislav Tsema (countertenor), Nataliia Stets (conductor), National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata, Maryna Ryzhova (director)

December 2023, Lviv National Philharmonic

youtube.com/live/o4zdR4xHmFo?si=5uKTBsQOEABRAL-H

Mykhailo Chedryk, Sonare for Double Bass and Ensemble

Performed by Nataliia Stets (conductor), Nazarii Stets (double bass), National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata

19 May 2024, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Kyiv

youtu.be/gtNiNPsSTSo?si=OHGBEjtVDUOIREiT