XENIA HANUSIAK

“Hanusiak is a fantastic presenter… from the start it’s obvious she’s serious business and knows what she’s doing” Classical: Next Berlin 2024

Described as the ‘High Priestess of Harmony,’ whose writing has ‘enjoyed exceptional public approbation,’ Xenia Hanusiak enjoys one of the most diverse lives on the world’s stages.

Dr Xenia Hanusiak is an artistic director, curator, cultural diplomat, and scholar whose lifelong dedication to the arts as an opera singer and writer embraces the many styles and traditions of the lands where she lives, works, and travels.  She divides her time between New York, Paris and Australia.

Xenia directs international performing arts, literature, ideas and interdisciplinary festivals, forums and frolics. In 2022 she co-curated the 75th Anniversary of Salzburg Global Seminar Arts program: “Currents of Change: Redefining cultural diplomacy for the future we need,” bringing together 60 diplomats, ambassadors, artists, curators, directors, scholars, government and cultural leaders from twenty-eight countries, resulting in the Salzburg Statement.

Her current festival Songlines for a New World made its world tour debut at Spring Revolution Festival at National Sawdust (New York) in 2018 & now tours across the globe. Some of her previous projects include: A thousand doors, a thousand windows (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Venice, Boston, Florence, Singapore, Beijing), MADE IN CHINA (Beijing Music Festival), Earth Songs (Korea, Sydney, Melbourne), and The Garden of Joy and Sorrow (Melbourne International Arts Festival).

As a culture commentator, essayist and critic she’s published by The Guardian, London Financial Times, Corriere della Sera, Arts Journal, The Log Journal (National Sawdust),Music and Literature, Chicago Tribune, International Arts Manager, Aspen Ideas, Musical America, New York Times, Classical Voice North America (USA), AEON and AEON Psyche, South China Post, Arts and International Affairs, Choir and Organ (UK), New Music Box as well as literary and scholarly journals. She writes on music, theater, film, contemporary installation, literature, ideas, food, and cultural diplomacy. She is deeply committed to writing on the representation of women in music and issues of equality. 

Her body of work as a writer for the stage includes the play "Ward B" (R.E Ross Trust Award), the children’s chorus "Un_labelled" (co-written with Elena Kats-Chernin/Boosey & Hawkes/Young People’s Chorus of New York City), the libretto "A thousand doors, a thousand windows" (Melbourne International Arts Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Venice Biennale), the music-theatre work "Earth Songs" (Homart Theatre Korea/Sydney/Melbourne Recital Centre), and the dramatic vocal monologue ''The MsTaken Identity'' (Adelaide Festival of Arts/Australian String Quartet). Most recently she collaborated with Norwegian composer Stein Eide on the song cycle ”The Singing Lesson” (published by Universal Edition) for female choir.

Xenia is committed to the exchange of ideas and international relations through arts and culture. She believes that cultural narratives promote not simply a greater understanding of the arts but an important cognition of people’s values and ways of thinking. Since 2022 she is appointed President of EUNIC European Union National Institutes of Culture (local cluster). She is a Salzburg Global Fellow ; a Global Cultural Fellow, Institute of International Relations, University of Edinburgh; a Eugene O’Neill National Theater Critics’ Institute Fellow (USA), an artist incubator at Culture Summit, Abu Dhabi; a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (New York), a Churchill Fellow, a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellow, and a Writer-in-residence at Peking University.

A sought after speaker, Xenia’s addresses to diverse audiences on cultural engagement, literature, music, and museum practice offer many opportunities. In 2024 she speaks at Classical: NEXT in Berlin on The Musical Art of Curation, ENCTATC, and Communicating the Arts (Sydney). Other past engagements include: EU National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), Salzburg Global Seminar, UNESCO Media Information and Literacy Conference, International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy (United Nations), Boston University, Northeastern University (Boston), Museums Victoria, Non-FictionNow (Melbourne and Reykjavik), Peking University (China), Sang Myung and Kookmin Universities (Korea), the National University of Singapore (Singapore), the Shanghai Institute of Theatre (Shanghai), Monash University, Melbourne University, and Adelaide Universities (Australia), the International Forum for Words and Music at Arizona State University, and Performers  Present Symposium at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore) and La Salle Sia. 

As an operatic soprano, Xenia has given world premiere performances on four continents. Her appearances include the Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Ten Days on the Island festivals (Australia), Aarhus Festival (Denmark), Banff Festival of Arts (Canada), Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music Festival (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington), Singapore Arts Festival, Gruppo Aperto Musica Oggi (Florence), Beijing Musica Acoustica, Beijing Music Festival (China) MODAFE Festival (Seoul), The Concert Hall, Esplanade Theatre on The Bay, (Singapore) and the Ljubljana Spring Festival. She has given the country or world premieres of some of the most influential composers of our time including Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Harbison, Elena Kats-Chernin, Chinese electro-acoustic composer Zhang Xiaofu, and Korean composer Cecilia Heejong Kim.

Xenia holds a PhD in literature/Creative Writing, a masters in classical music performance, a Bachelor of Arts degree (theatre and literature), and a Bachelor or Music. She is an alumnus of the Eugene O’Neill National Critic’s Institute (USA), Banff School of Arts and Creativity (Canada), Corsi Di Perfezionamento Sulla Musica Del Novecento (Italy). Her residencies includes a Hambidge Residency and Noepe Writers’ Residency, (Martha’s Vineyard) in the USA, Bundanon Trust residencies (Australia), a 2022 a King Island Artist residency (Tasmania).

She is a committed educator as a Visiting Scholar at the School of Writing, Columbia University (New York), a Writer/Scholar/Artist in residence at Peking University (Beijing), Kookmin University (Korea) and several postings at Australian Universities. Her honours and recognitions include the R. E Ross Trust award for playwriting and she remains the only recipient ever awarded multiple citations from three different categories of the Australia Council (Literature, Music, and Theatre). Xenia has held an Australia-China Council Fellowship, two Australia-Korea Foundation awards, an Asialink award, an Ian Potter Award, and multiple writer’s awards from Copyright Australia (CAL)

Xenia is currently member of the Advisory Panel of the Fremantle Biennale.