© Matthew Williams-Ellis
Born in New Zealand and raised in Wales, mezzo soprano Joanna Harries was a choral scholar at the University of Cambridge before training at the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Opera Studio. She is a City Music Foundation artist 2024–26, and a former Opera Prelude Young Artist, Britten Pears Young Artist and Handel House Talent Artist.
In recent seasons she has performed Hansel Hansel and Gretel (Longborough Festival Opera); Medoro Orlando (Buxton International Festival); Prince/Stepmother Little Listeners: Cinderella (Opera North); Lucinda La forza dell’amor paterno (Barber Opera); Contessa Ceprano Rigoletto (Opera Holland Park); Deborah Robinson Crusoe (West Green House Opera); and Tweedledee Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (If Opera). She has also appeared in recital at the Oxford International Song Festival and Brighton Early Music Festival. Recordings scheduled for release this season include La rondine (Opera Rara) and Nightingale (CRD Records).
Her operatic roles stretch from Baroque to contemporary and include the title role Sāvitri (Hampstead Garden Opera); Dido Dido and Aeneas (Dartington Arts Festival); Zerlina Don Giovanni (Merry Opera Company); Karolka Jenůfa and Varava Kát’a Kabanová (Fulham Opera); Drummer The Emperor of Atlantis in Polly Graham’s production (Loud Crowd and CHROMA); and Nun The Fiery Angel (Scottish Opera). Her contemporary music appearances include Tartine in David Blake and Keith Warner’s Scoring a Century (British Youth Opera); Alice Bragg Rosalind (Helix Music) and Awen (cover) Pwyll ap Sion’s Gair ar Gnawd (Welsh National Opera).
As a concert soloist Joanna has performed Bach Christmas Oratorio (Snape Maltings); MacMillan Seven Last Words from the Cross (BBC Philharmonic); Bach Easter Oratorio (Bach Festival Świdnica); Bach St. Matthew Passion (Skipton Camerata); Handel Messiah (Lincoln Cathedral); Haydn Theresienmesse (Chester Cathedral); and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Sheffield Cathedral). A keen recitalist, Joanna has performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Snape Maltings, Pushkin House, the Elgar Concert Hall and the Royal Opera House.
Her discography includes La princesse de Trébizonde (Opera Rara); her debut song album Letters from Scandinavia with pianist Sholto Kynoch (CRD Records); and Paul Rissmann’s Wonderland: The Alice Sound (London Symphony Orchestra).
Joanna is co-founder with Jess Dandy of SongPath, bringing together music, nature and mental health in specially curated outdoor events. Since 2019 they have worked with mental health organisations across the UK and festivals including Beverley Early Music Festival, the London Handel Festival, Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder and Ulverston International Music Festival.
Hansel / Hansel & Gretel / Longborough Festival Opera / 2026
“Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson, both striking in voice, diction and acting… not just hungry and neglected. They are delinquent verging on feral.”
(The Times)
“I can’t rave enough about our eponymous twins: Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson… Harries brought a boyish charm to Hansel with a brilliantly warm-bodied voice…”
(Opera Now)
“Central to the success of this production is the casting, and claiming our attention throughout are Joanna Harries, as Hansel and Rosalind Dobson as Gretel…”
(Opera Today)
Suzy, Lolette, Rorò / La Rondine / Opera Rara and BBC Symphony Orchestra / 2025
“Just as the voices for the two pairs of lovers were perfectly chosen, so those of the three grisettes, Jessica Robinson, Judith Lozaro-Rolong and Joanna Harries offered their own tapestry of colour…”
(Opera Today)
“A brief ‘new’ Act 3 scene for a trio of couturiers, wittily done by Jessica Robinson, Julieth Lozano Rolong and Joanna Harries, continued the chit-chat of three society belles in the previous acts…”
(Bachtrack)
“…matching the triumfeminates of the earlier acts-were Jessica Robinson, Julieth Lozano Rolong and Joanna Harries, all spot on.”
(Opera)
Letters from Scandinavia / CRD Records / 2025
“Vivid storytelling… It is meticulously researched and brilliantly executed…”
(BBC Radio 3 Record Review)
“This is an unusual and enchanting thing – not just an album but an embracing narrative experience…”
(Gramaphone)
