Anna Starushkevych – mezzo-soprano (Ukraine-United Kingdom)

Anna Starushkevych was born in Lviv, where she began her artistic path as a pianist and later as a vocalist. After studying at the Stanislav Lyudkevych Lviv Music College and the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, Anna continued her education at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.

The singer is a winner and laureate of numerous vocal competitions, including the International Handel Singing Competition in London, where she won First Prize, as well as the Audience Prize and the York Early Music Festival Prize.

Anna’s professional recordings include the role of Rosimonda in Handel’s opera Faramondo, recorded on CD for the Decca Records label. This recording was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Anna performs in the United Kingdom, Europe (including Ukraine), and Australia, appearing in venues such as Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Barbican Hall and Wigmore Hall in London. Her repertoire includes roles such as Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Mignon in Thomas’s Mignon, Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Pinocchio in Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, among others.

When the opportunity arises, the singer also engages in performing and creatively experimenting with various musical styles, including jazz and folk.

Concert activity is an important part of Anna’s artistic life. Her solo charity project “Music to the Rescue” is a series of concerts in support of Ukraine, with all proceeds donated to the charity UAID International, which purchases and delivers medical equipment and vehicles for Ukrainian soldiers. An important component of these concerts is the presentation of historical facts about Ukraine to foreign audiences between musical pieces, aimed at enriching knowledge about the country’s rich culture and history. As of October 2025, the project has raised around £20,000 (approximately 1,120,000 UAH), which has been used to purchase vehicles and medical equipment for the frontline.

Anna is the founder of the UK-based nonprofit organisation “Music Will Save The World”, within which she made her directorial debut by creating the short opera film Magura, dedicated to those missing during the war. All proceeds from screenings of the film—already shown in the UK, Germany, and Ukraine—are donated to support the volunteer search group “Platzdarm”, which searches for the missing in frontline areas. Screenings of Magura have already raised around £6,000 (approximately 335,000 UAH), which has been transferred to “Platzdarm”.

In August 2025, Anna took on the roles of director, producer, and lead performer in the world premiere of the orchestrated version of the contemporary opera Penelope. Seven Ways to Wait by British composer Kristina Arakelyan, presented at the “Philharmonic Evenings” festival at the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Philharmonic. Anna was directly involved in creating this work back in 2022, when it was first performed in its piano version. The official commissioner of the project was Music Will Save The World, which initiated and supported the realisation of this large-scale international project.

www.anna-starushkevych.com
www.MusicWillSaveTheWorld.com