Joanna Harries
mezzo-soprano
"divine...a brilliantly warm-bodied voice"
OPERA NOW
"striking in voice, diction and acting"
THE TIMES
About
British/New-Zealand mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries was a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London and made recent debuts with Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall.
She begins the 25/26 season with the launch of her debut song album Letters from Scandinavia with pianist Sholto Kynoch, and performing at Oxford International Song Festival and Brighton Early Music Festival. She performs (and records) Suzy/Lolette/Rorò in Puccini’s La Rondine for Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, and Hänsel in Hänsel & Gretel at Longborough Festival Opera.
Recent opera roles include with Opera North Little Listeners, Buxton International Festival, Opera Holland Park, West Green House Opera and IF Opera.
A keen recitalist, she is a City Music Foundation artist and recent performances include the Elgar Concert Hall, Birmingham, Snape Maltings as a Britten-Pears Young Artist, with Oxford International Song Festival and at Pushkin House.
She is co-founder of SongPath, bringing together music and mental health in nature for festivals and mental health organisations across the UK, most recently at the London Handel Festival.
“Throughout the performance Harries’s robust mezzo-soprano adroitly navigated the shifting moods and keys of the piece, letting rip in her final exchange with Death."
BACHTRACK
Listen
STRAUSS - Wie du warst (Octavian - Der Rosenkavalier)
MONTEVERDI - Addio Roma (Octavia - L'incoronazione di Poppea)
BRITTEN - Puppet? Why so? (Hermia - A Midsummer Night's Dream)
reviews
Humperdinck Hansel & Gretel (Hansel)
Longborough Festival Opera, 2026
“Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson, both striking in voice, diction and acting...”
THE TIMES
"I can't rave enough about our eponymous twins: Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson…were divine. An electric yet very down-to-earth chemistry with distinct voices and characters that didn't overlap. A brilliant childlike physicality and curiosity…we fell in love with them. Harries brought a boyish charm to Hansel with a brilliantly warm-bodied voice…"
OPERA NOW
"Harries and Dobson shine as the title pair...As Hansel, Joanna Harries revealed a persuasive mezzo-soprano... "
MUSIC OMH
"The two children are the evening's beating heart, and they are marvellous. Joanna Harries' Hansel and Rosalind Dobson's Gretel...are fresh and agile and exquisitely matched, and they inhabit childhood without ever once condescending to it…Voices in full bloom carrying the weight of the piece as though it were nothing. These are singers to follow."
OPERA SCENE
...there are some glorious sounds on stage too, where Hansel (Joanna Harries) and Gretel (Rosalind Dobson) are a pair of sooty, fractious brats in a monochrome dreamscape"
THE SPECTATOR
Letters from Scandinavia - debut album
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…”
GRAMOPHONE
"…Harries knows how to project with an intimate expressiveness, while Kynoch emphasizes the richness of harmonic colour.”
SONOGRAMA
contact
Steven Swales Artist Management
www.stevenswalesartists.com
steven@stevenswalesartists.com
+44 (0) 7742 882 167