Natalya Romaniw

Scofield: Natalya, your beautiful new CD, Arion: Voyage of a Slavic soul, a nod to your Ukrainian heritage, the country that your grandfather hailed from. And this song “Arion” is the title of the CD. “Arion” is a poem by Pushkin, based on the Greek myth of the harpist. What did you feel when you first heard this song, and why is it the name of your first CD?

Romaniw: I first heard the song by a wonderful singer in in the Wigmore Hall some years ago, and I’m always on the lookout for new repertoire, particularly of the Slavic. “Arion” really struck a chord with me, because it’s so thunderous, and dark, and stormy. You can really take on the music and embody it. Of course, it’s a strong song, you can really, really let the voice out to its full capacity, but also there are bits you can really hone it in, really tender moments within the song.

We actually put this song in at the very last minute, because it’s quite fiendish for the pianist, although Lada plays it wonderfully. It was two weeks before the recording of the CD, and I just couldn’t quite let go of not putting it in. We had no idea at the time that we would become so infatuated with the song, which we actually recorded very near to the seaside in Potton Hall in Suffolk. For me, the story of the soul who’s on the ship singing and entertaining his fellow crewmen, and is suddenly thrown overboard by the great storm, continues to sing, and seeks safety and warmth underneath a cave on the shore, but still manages to keep singing, because that’s all he can really do, and that’s all that he can give and contribute, it really resonated with me, because I feel in some way, my journey so far as a singer has been somewhat rocky at points and a little bit stormy, but I’ve always kept singing and that has really been my constancy throughout my career. My voice has always been there for me. And so, it made sense to give a very strong title to this album, because it has and some very, very strong repertoire in it. To call it Voyage of a Slavic Soul made sense as well, because we really set sail as performers, and we have elements to deal with, which are sometimes out of our control. I really like the sentiments of it, so that’s why we decided to call it Arion.