Xenia Puskarz Thomas has been announced as the recipient of the Melba Opera Trust’s 2026 Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award. The Brisbane-born mezzo-soprano will be awarded $25,000 to support the development of her professional career.

Xenia Puskarz Thomas. Photo supplied

Puskarz Thomas is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and The Juilliard School, and was named as one of The New York Times’ ‘Five Breakout Artists‘ of the 2024 Salzburg Festival for her performance as Aglaja in Weinberg’s Der Idiot.

She will perform at the 2026 Glyndenbourne Festival next week in director and artist William Kentridge’s major new production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.

Earlier this year, she performed alongside Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon in Orfeo at the Adelaide Festival, and in 2025, she performed in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This at Italy’s Teatro San Carlo and served as a soloist for the Berlin Philharmonic’s performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

Xenia Puskarz Thomas performing in L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2017. Photo © Nick Morrissey

Puskarz Thomas was a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s professional development program Opernstudio, where she performed the roles of Dachsund/Woodpecker in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen, Flora in La Traviata and Mercèdes in Carmen, amongst others.

She was awarded the 2018 Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship, which granted her $43,000 to study in New York and is an alum of Opera Queensland’s Young Artist Program.

Established in 2013 by bequest, the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award grants support to an Australian or New Zealand vocalist who “who has started their professional principal career and who would benefit artistically from access to funds to refine an already evident talent”. Previous recipients include sopranos Madisojn Nonoa, Anna-Louise Campbell and Lauren Fagan, bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman, baritone Sameul Dundas and mezzos Emily Edmonds and Fleuranne Brockway.

More about the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award can be found here.