YOU may not instantly recognise the name, but you’ll certainly know the voice of Latvian soprano Inessa Galante, about to take the stage at the National Arboretum for “Voices in the Forest”.

Long hidden behind the Iron Curtain, where she was famous as a star with the Latvian National Opera and the Kirov, she swept to fame in the West during 1995 with her soaring but delicate performance of the Vavilov/Caccini “Ave Maria”, which rapidly became a cult hit.

Throughout the ‘90s after the fall of the Soviet empire, she performed at the National Theatre Mannheim and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, where the 60-year-old diva now spends much of her time, as well as in Riga in her native Latvia.

Galante has been seen everywhere from the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to La Scala, but now in the autumnal years of her career, Galante is giving back to her home country, to Europe and to the world.

“I can choose what I want to do… all my life I did things I didn’t like, so now freedom is very important to me,” she tells me by phone from Austria’s Tyrol, where “it’s real winter, like a fairytale”.

But she’s happy to come here. She remembers Sydney and Melbourne audiences being “absolutely fabulous”, with warm hearts, but hasn’t been to Canberra before.

In a program devised by director Chris Latham that includes arias from Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and her “Ave Maria”, what Galante would really like to perform are some favourite songs by Russian composers – “I love them, they’re gorgeous,” she says. Latham, take note.

Galante will be joined on stage by Opera Australia’s dashing baritone Peter Coleman Wright and by NZ tenor Simon O’Neill singing popular duets for tenor and baritone.

As well, in a lighter touch, Canberra mezzo soprano Christina Wilson will join former Canberran Tim Dal Cortivo in a set of love songs from Broadway and all will be supported by the Voices in the Forest Youth Choir

Galante is no stranger to such a mixed repertoire. Twelve years ago, she tells me, she had an idea for an event and this year she’s been celebrating 10 years of “Summertime – Inessa Galante and Friends”, an “inter-genre” festival held in the resort town J?rmala on the shores of the Baltic Sea which sees 20,000 visitors annually.

You’d expect her festival to be all opera, but this year’s high spots included a jazz pianist from Russia, Balkan and Gypsy musicians, a flamenco group from Madrid, an African diva and Mozart’s “Requiem” performed to video projections. “Every day there is something different,” she says with some pride.

Recently she set up the Inessa Galante Talent Competition, specifically for young musical artists from Latvia in four categories with 12 winners. The 2014 winners performed in a major concert with international artists.

“It’s very gorgeous,” she rejoices, “and it’s not very often that they’d get a chance to perform in front of a real audience, I mean, not just their parents… that’s what our foundation is about… to give them a real public, to let them show what they can do.”

In March last year she formed the Inessa Galante Foundation, now administered by her daughter Di?na. It numbers on its board Latvian President Andris B?rzi?š, and has wider aims than just competition.

“I want to give back to Latvia what I once received, love and knowledge,” she says.

Galante still tours the world as a soprano, but makes it clear to “CityNews” that nowadays she can pick and choose. Luckily, she’s picked us.

“My schedule was always very heavily booked,” she concludes, “I had no time to live or breathe.”

“Now I can think about what I do, I can say no.”

“Voices in the Forest”, National Arboretum, 4.45pm?8.30pm, Sunday, November 30. Free bus. Details at voicesintheforest.com.au and bookings to canberraticketing.com.au