photo by Arielle Doneson

Ms. Matanovič made her professional opera debut, directly from her undergraduate studies, as Mimì in the Los Angeles commercial engagement of Baz Luhrmann’s Tony Award-winning production of La bohème, and made her international opera debut as Musetta in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La bohème with the New Israeli Opera. She has returned to Seattle Opera on numerous occasions since her time there as a young artist, including roles such as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Marzelline in Fidelio, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Nanetta in Falstaff. She has twice joined Santa Fe Opera, as Wanda in a new production of Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She made her debut with the Glimmerglass Festival as Micaëla in Carmen, under the baton of David Angus.

​Other notable engagements include her company and role debut as Mimi in La bohème with Opera Colorado, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress and Violetta in La traviata with Boston Lyric Opera, Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Kentucky Opera, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Madison Opera, and New Orleans Opera as Adele in Die Fledermaus. She joined New York City Opera as Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, as well as productions of Massenet’s Cendrillon, La bohème, and Purcell’s King Arthur.

Her signature roles in addition to Violetta include Musetta (Arizona Opera, New Israeli Opera), Gilda (Opera Memphis, Boston Youth Symphony), Gretel (Seattle Opera, Utah Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Cleveland), and Pamina (Boston Youth Symphony, Crested Butte Music Festival, Utah Opera).

Ms. Matanovič is equally comfortable on the concert stage, having appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony for Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, for Carmina Burana under Alastair Willis, Richmond Symphony as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Eugene Concert Choir for Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor,  Portland (OR) Chamber Orchestra, Hoku Concert Series in Hawaii, the Palm Springs Orchestra and the Music of Remembrance Concert Series in Seattle.

​In addition to her training in the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, she did her undergraduate studies the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Ms. Matanovič was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has been a prizewinner in competitions sponsored by such institutions as the Gerda Lissner Foundation, Opera Buffs, Leni Fe Bland, and the Sun Valley Opera.

Anya’s musical life began at age five, singing with her musical family. Her parents had been folk singers, and when they realized she and her sister could hold a tune, their father began setting traditional children’s poetry to music. The family recorded several albums for children in collaboration with Grammy Award–winning musician Nancy Rumbel. Their first album, Good Morning Good Night, won a Parent’s Choice Award in 1987, followed by On the Way to Somewhere (1989) and Day and Night and Other Dreams (1991).

Though she initially set her sights on musical theater, her path changed at sixteen when her mother gave her a recording of Maria Callas. The voice filled her with such emotion and depth of feeling that she knew she had to pursue opera, if only to make one other person feel what she had just experienced.

Alongside her performance career, Matanovič is co-founder of The Pomegranate Collaborative, a civic consultancy developed with her father, artist and community builder Milenko Matanović. The Collaborative extends the internationally recognized Pomegranate Method—a process used to help groups collectively imagine, design, and build public spaces and shared initiatives — into arts and civic institutions around the country. The method enables groups to surface the wisdom already present among participants, shape it collaboratively, and turn it into visible, collectively owned outcomes.

This work grows organically from her life in the arts. Years spent in rehearsal rooms, opera houses, and ensembles across the world have given her a deep understanding of collaboration, listening, leadership, and the delicate balance between individual voice and collective creation. She now brings those same principles into civic life, working to make democratic participation more creative, effective, and joyful.

She also serves as a board member of the art song organization Sparks and Wiry Cries and the AGMA Board of Governors.

Anya lives in Manchester, Vermont with her husband, television writer and educator John P. Roche, and their daughter, Zara.