Natalia Rom, soprano, was born in Kazan, in the Soviet Union (also the city of Feodor Chaliapin's birth), and graduated (as a conductor) from the Leningrad Conservatory. In late 1976, she emigrated to New Orleans, where she attended Loyola University's College of Music, where she studied voice with Patricia Havranek. In 1979, she made her professional debut in a small role in the New Orleans Opera Association's Die Zauberflöte. That same year she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1980 she sang Aïda for the Seattle Opera.
The soprano's Metropolitan Opera debut was as Mimì in La bohème (in 1983, conducted by James Levine), subsequently performing Tatyana in Eugene Onegin (opposite Leo Nucci) and Emma in the new production of Khovanschina (with Martti Talvela) at the house. She returned to New Orleans in 1989 for Aïda, then Tatyana (with Yuri Mazurok) in 1995. In New York, she studied under Dick Marzollo.
She also appeared with Opera North (her European debut, in Andrei Şerban's Il trovatore), Scottish Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Massimo (in Palermo), Opéra de Montréal, Dallas Opera, Savonlinna Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Verona (Teatro Filarmonico), The New Opera Theatre, Athens International Festival, Municipal Theater of Santiago, Opéra de Nice (Pagliacci) and Teatro San Carlo (Madama Butterfly). In 1999, she portrayed Élisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos, at the Palm Beach Opera.
Mme Rom may be seen on the DVD of the Met's 1984 production of Francesca da Rimini (as Biancofiore), with Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil.