The Australian mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas made her international breakthrough at the 2024 Salzburg Festival as Aglaya in Weinberg’s The Idiot under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. She was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she worked with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Henrik Nánási and Daniele Rustioni and performed roles such as Lucienne (Die tote Stadt), Krystina (Die Passagierin), Dachshund / Woodpecker (The Cunning Little Vixen), Flora (La traviata), Mercédès (Carmen) and Saiko in Thomas Larcher’s Das Jagdgewehr.
In the 2025/26 season she made her debuts as Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and as La Speranza / Messaggera in William Kentridge’s new production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the 2026 Glyndebourne Festival. She also sang the title role of Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion at the Adelaide Festival. Concert engagements included Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Berlin Philharmonic under Raphaël Pichon, Michael Haydn’s Requiem with the Munich Philharmonic under Riccardo Minasi and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Leip-zig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Alan Gilbert.
Her repertory also includes Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel), Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Flowermaiden (Parsifal) and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem and Leopold Mozart’s Missa solemnis.
As a keen advocate of early music repertory, she works closely with the New York ensemble Twelfth Night, with which her appearances include Fillide in Handel’s Aminta e Fillide and her 2024 debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Xenia Puskarz Thomas studied at the Queensland Conservatory of Griffith University, and with Edith Wiens at the Juilliard School in New York, where she was supported by the Kovner Fellowship Program. She has received the Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship of the Opera Foundation for Young Australians, the Tinkler Encouragement Award at the IFAC Australian Singing Competition and the Amelia Joscelyne Memorial Scholarship from the Melba Opera Trust. She is also a former member of the Young Artist Program of Opera Queensland.
