Nathan was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was raised in Dublin.
She represented Ireland at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, has performed with Placido Domingo in Dublin and proclaimed as Ireland's outstanding New Entertainer of the year in 1991.
[2][3][4] In 1994 she was the subject of an hour long documentary made for RTÉ by Louis Lentin, The Quality of Rapture.
[5] Nathan performed on four of the twenty tracks of the multi-platinum selling compilation album Faith of Our Fathers.
[citation needed] Nathan has given world premières of contemporary works, including John Buckley's Maynooth Te Deum (1995) and Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Country of the Blind (1997).