“Every so often a theatergoer comes across that incandescent creature—the stage animal—whose body is electrified by performance and whose joy in communication is palpable. Such was the young British mezzo soprano Joanne Evans in the long-lost comic opera I due Figaro... Evans’s singing was as elastic as her gestures. Her low notes were startlingly resonant, with an organ’s fullness; her upper reaches clear and supple, with a subtle control of dynamics.”

- Heather Macdonald (City Journal)

ABOUT

London-born mezzo soprano, Joanne Evans is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program and of the Artist in Residence program at Opera Colorado. Most recently Joanne understudied the role of Rosina with Opera San Jose. 

In 2024 Joanne will be performing recitals in Boston, Austin and Philadelphia, and taking part in residencies with the Festival d’Aix en Provence and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute.

As a Vocal Fellow at Music Academy of the West in 2022, Joanne was named winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Elsewhere Joanne took home first place in the 2022 Handel Aria Competition and was a Boston District winner in the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. She is a proud beneficiary of a Career Bridges grant, and was awarded 3rd place in Premiere Opera Foundation’s 2024 competition.

Alongside singer and conductor, Micah Gleason, Joanne is a co-founder of Loam, an artistic partnership presenting semi-immersive musical works. Loam’s next project is Daughter of God, a one-woman chamber opera examining the cross-section between artificial reality and religious morality, coming to Philadelphia for workshop in May 2024.

Between 2014 and 2019, Joanne spent her time in London away from opera but performing in various musicals and plays, including the U.K. regional premiere of Laura Wade’s ‘Posh’ at both Nottingham and Salisbury Playhouses, music for which was written for her by Isobel Waller-Bridge. Soon after, Joanne joined pop a cappella group, Gobsmacked with whom she performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London’s Southbank, the Udderbelly residency in Hong Kong, and as part of a seven-month North American tour (including three sold-out shows at The Kennedy Center). Elsewhere she is credited with co-writing and performing the theme tune for BBC prime time show ‘Pitch Battle’.