Pumeza Matshikiza

South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, an exclusive Decca Artist since 2014, has performed at many of the leading opera houses across Europe and the United States and has released two solo recordings with Decca: ‘Voice of Hope’, her debut album combining well-known arias with traditional and popular African songs, and ‘Arias’. Throughout her career Pumeza has championed numerous contemporary operatic works.

Pumeza opens her 25/26 season appearing at the Opera for Peace gala at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Later in the season, Pumeza will perform in concert at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, at a special concert at Essen’s Museum Folkwang, celebrating the Museum’s collaboration with William Kentridge. Pumeza will return to her beloved Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the BBC Scottish Symphony, and will perform Bess in a concert version of Porgy and Bess at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. 

Pumeza’s 24/25 season engagements included concerts with Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov in Bucharest, Budapest, Paris and at the Ljubljana Festival, a Christmas tour around the UK with Sir Bryn Terfel, Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the Royal College of Music under the baton of Martyn Brabbins, a solo recital at Paris’ Le Théâtre de l’Œuvre, Aida in Sicily at the Teatro Greco di Tindari, Teatro Greco Siracusa and Teatro Antico di Taormina, and her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

In recent seasons Pumeza has won critical acclaim in the title role of Aida (a role debut) at Staatsoper Hannover, as Mařenka in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Garsington Opera and as the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the English National Opera. Further highlights of her recent career have included her debuts as both Bess and Serena in a new production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Theater an der Wien, as well as concerts in London, Germany, South Africa and a European tour with Rolando Villazón. Dvořák’s Rusalka has quickly become one of her signature roles – after her acclaimed debut at Stadttheater Klagenfurt, in 2018, she performed the part in new productions in Strasbourg and Antwerp. In another favorite role, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, she made her first US appearance with The Dallas Opera and her debuts at both Semperoper Dresden and Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. She made her debut at Teatro alla Scala in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s CO2, staged by Robert Carsen.