Laureate of international competitions – was born in the town Penza, where she graduated with honors from the theoretical branch of middle Music School. This is followed by training at the vocal department in the class of Professor H. Wojciechowski at the Musical Academy of Odessa, which she finished with distinction.

Immediately after graduating from the Academy in 1991, she was selected to represent the Commission on the Ukraine's vocal skills on the International Singing Competition of Dvořák, that was a special event in her creative life, influenced the definition of her career. She became the laureate of this competition, was invited to tour by the theaters of Czechoslovakia, but most importantly that the chairman of the jury, tenor, Professor Andrei Kucharski, interested in her voice, invited her to his graduate class of Munich Academy of Music. In 1991, she received a scholarship award and went to graduate school in the class of Professor A. Kucharski, which she also finished with honors.

At the same time, followed by invitations to concerts and festivals in Europe among which is interesting to note the «Prague Spring», where she performed in concerts under the slogan «Belissimi voce» («Beautiful voices») and was rewarded for the best performance of works by J.S. Bach.

In 1993 she was invited to perform her first role in the Western Europe – in Switzerland (The Blind in «La Gioconda» Ponchielli) under conducting by Carlo Franci. This was followed by a parade of such wonderful roles in theaters in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, and Poland, among them Rossini's Cinderella, Carmen, Bizet, Verdi's Amneris and Azucena.

During these years she continued to work on her vocal skills and learning the repertoire. She received the help of many masters of opera and chamber music – such as Carlos Montane (USA), Orlando Montes de Oca (Austria), Jon Bouzea – (Romania, Switzerland), Birgit Nickle ( Germany).

In 1995 as a finalist in Europe at the International Luciano Pavarotti Competition, she performed with the maestro Pavarotti in his hometown – Modena.

In 1997, two triumphs, in Hamburg, laureat of III Price at the International Vocal Competition of «Robert Stolz» and six months later, she became the first price in Italy at the International Opera Competition «Di canto lirico» (Toscana), after which the President himself, the jury Renato Bruson, invited her to New York to attend the concerts «Bel canto» in front of thousands of spectators of the Time Square and the role of Ladies Quickly in Opera «Falstaff» by Verdi, where the Maestro Bruson acted as a director.

Currently, Svetlana Afonina is a welcome guest at international stages as well as in the opera and as in the concert repertoire. Among her favorite roles are particularly Favorite Donizetti, Azucena Verdi, Lyubasha Rimsky-Korsakov and Dalila Saint-Saens.

«Her great noble voice ranges from a dark contralto to a bright soprano sound, rich in deep sensitivity, it has a range of colors from the «Impressionist» pianissimo to the intense, dramatic forte. Each tone has impeccable musical taste and expressiveness.»(Züricher Zeitung 2009)