The Viennese mezzo-soprano and performance artist Diana Kantner explores music beyond the boundaries of traditional classical genres. She seeks new ways to make music tangible for a diverse and modern audience, combining tradition with innovation and creativity. Her project TROUBLED WOMEN was nominated for theAHK Graduation Award. As a founding member of the collective GRUPPE:7, she produced and performed in its first operetta, MAX & MORITZ ReVamped – Warum ist der Mensch so lecker?, in Berlin and Saarbrücken in 2025. She also co-produced the show Voices Between These Walls by the Berlin-based collective MusikfürMusik, in which she stars as Marlene Dietrich.

Diana began her musical journey at the age of eight in the children’s choir of the Vienna State Opera, where she frequently appeared as a soloist on stage. During her school years, she sang lead roles in several musical productions and performed at prestigious venues such as the Vienna Musikverein and Vienna Konzerthaus, gaining substantial stage experience from an early age.

While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in singing at the Saar University of Music under Prof. Ruth Ziesak, Diana participated in the Silbermann Festival in Saint-Quirin, France, and the Saarbrücken Summer Music Festival. In 2017, she made her debut at the Saarland State Theatre as the Third Page (3. Edelknabe) in Wagner’s

Tannhäuser. In 2018, she portrayed Atis in Reinhard Keiser’s Croesus, a co- production between the Saarland State Theatre and the Saar University of Music. As a scholarship holder at the Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival, she made her debut as Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in 2018 in Sicily. In the 2018/19 academic year, she received an Erasmus scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, where she performed the role of Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring.

In 2022, Diana completed her master’s degree in singing, graduating cum laude from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Prof. Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet. Her graduation concert, TROUBLED WOMEN, was nominated for the AHK Graduation Award. While in Amsterdam, she performed in numerous concerts, including the role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart, Trois poèmes de Mallarmé by Ravel with chamber ensemble, excerpts as Octavian from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with orchestra, and Britten’s cantata Phaedra with chamber orchestra.

In 2022, she made her debut at the Cello Biënnale at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, she toured as a soloist with the Noord Nederlands Jeugdorkest. Since 2022, she has regularly performed as a soloist with the Donau Philharmonie Wien at renowned festivals such as the Hohenloher Kultursommer. Her Lied performances have taken her to Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands as a Young Artist at the International Song Festival Zeist. In 2023, Diana sang the role of Max in the mini-operetta LEHRER LÄMPEL by Olivia Artner in the final of the Quattropole Prix de Musique. In 2024, her collective GRUPPE:7 was invited for an artist residency at the Fleetstreet Theater Hamburg.

Diana currently lives and works in Berlin.