Born in Moscow, Russia, as Yulia Ronskaya, at the age of 4, she already knew exactly what she wanted to be in the future: a ballerina. Definitely a ballerina. Dividing her time between dance classes, ice skating lessons, piano practice, modeling her mother's dresses and jewelry in front of the mirror, and helping her father design airplane engines by drawing on his blueprints with colored pencils, she still found time in her busy schedule to learn a song or two and perform them at family gatherings accompanied by her grandmother, a professional singer and pianist. The stage for her rare vocal appearances, the chair to stand on, was usually provided by her grandfather, a soloist of Moscow State Operetta Theater. Later, when it was time to choose what to do with her life, she chose singing. Perhaps she just loved standing on that chair... 

   

     After receiving her Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the Moscow Gnesin Music Academy and only two years as a leading soprano with the Moscow State Opera, she moved to the US and began performing under the stage name Veronica Bell, honoring, in part, her Godmother, the artistic director of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Veronica Dudarova. Finding operatic repertoire somewhat limiting, she decided to focus on concert soloism, which allowed her to venture into different musical genres while always keeping her favorite operatic arias in her repertoire. 

 

     Ms.Bell has performed as a soloist with numerous companies, choral, symphonic, and dance groups including Moscow State Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Slavianka Men's Chorus, Wondering Stars Musical Theater, Mimoda Jazzo Gruppa, San Francisco International Music Festival, and has an on-going collaboration with a Los Angeles based group Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble performing a wide variety of classical music ranging from Baroque to modern.

     

     Veronica was personally invited by Queen Sirikit of Thailand to perform a concert series in Bangkok on the occasion of Her Majesty's 60th birthday; she also returned to Moscow numerous times, to packed concert halls, for oratorios with the Moscow State Symphony and solo recitals. Veronica has toured the US, Europe, Russia, and South America. She recorded the main theme song for the motion picture Little Odessa starring Maximilian Shell and Vanessa Redgrave (soundtrack available on Polygram Records on Amazon).

 

     Following her passion for pushing the envelope and taking her art well outside its conventional scope, in 2013, Ms. Bell recorded a controversial cross-gender operatic album, Les Frissons D'Amour, for which she received a Hollywood Music in Media Award as Best Female Vocalist and also, among fellow musicians, an unofficial title, Antichrist of Opera. The album includes operatic arias and duets originally written for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone. It explores the androgynous nature of love, a concept not commonly accepted in the world of classical music. In 2016, Veronica received a silver medal at the Global Music Awards for the same album. Her performance at the Beverly Hills International Music Festival in June 2017 and July 2019 received raving reviews and was pronounced "the crown jewel of the festival" by the Los Angeles press.

 

     In 2018, Veronica recorded a composition by Norwegian composer Gisle Korgseth titled The Mountain Songs. This beautiful three-song cycle, written to the composer's own lyrics, is a dramatic musical exploration of the power of love and nature. It premiered to great acclaim on Norwegian National Radio in April 2018 and is now available on Spotify.

     

     Veronica's classical crossover album Midnight Affairs was released on April 27, 2019. It is currently airing on more than 50 radio stations across the US and Canada. To find out more, please click HERE. In 2022 and 2023, Veronica released two Holiday albums, The Soul of December, volumes 1 and 2, with her friend, saxophone virtuoso Jacob Nachman, and her own Christmas album, Into the Wonderland. Her next record of operatic arias is coming up on Christmas day, 2026.

 

Veronica resides in Los Angeles and continues to perform in the US and internationally, and coaches voice students in her private studio.