Joanna Bywater is a lyric soprano who sings a wide range of operatic, concert and choral repertoire. Recent operatic engagements include Echo in Hansel und Gretel for Opera Holland Park, Trincula in The Tempest by Joe StJohanser and Siebel in Faust for Guildford Opera, chorus in Fidelio with the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir at the BBC Proms, Parisina and Il Pirata for Opera Rara, Roberto Devereux, Iolanta, La Gioconda, Lakmé and Nabucco for Opera Holland Park and Rameau’s Platée for the English Bach Festival in Athens.
She was a participant in the 2011 London Masterclasses, studying with Nelly Miricioiu and Sergei Leiferkus.
Recent concert appearances include Magnus Lindburg Graffiti at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Beethoven Mass in C with the Whitehall Choir and Paul Spicer, the premiere of Michael Stimpson Songs of Innocence and Experience with the Exmoor Singers at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle at the Menuhin Hall in Surrey, Rossini Stabat Mater with the Princes Risborough Music Society, Mozart Mass in C minor with Skolia. One concert review remarked: “her phrasing and tuning were impeccable”. She has given recitals at venues in London including St James’, Piccadilly, St Magnus the Martyr, St George’s, Bloomsbury and St Andrew’s, Holborn.
Joanna also works as a choral singer. She works as an ad hoc singer with the BBC Singers and highlights include Beethoven Mass in C under Richard Hickox, as part of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. With the Gabrieli Consort she has recorded and performed Elijah, both at the Royal Albert Hall in the BBC Proms and abroad in Leipsig and Poland. As a member of Philharmonia Voices she has sung under eminent conductors including Nagano, Maazel, Hickox, Pletnev, and Muti, with the Philharmonia Orchestra. She also sings with the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, and many professional church choirs including St Marylebone Parish Church, The Guards’ Chapel, St Brides’, Grosvenor Chapel and St Paul’s Knightsbridge.
Joanna gained the post-graduate diploma in singing, with distinction, at the Royal College of Music, under Russell Smythe, then as a mezzo-soprano. At the Royal College she appeared in the Benjamin Britten Theatre as Pâtre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and she performed opera scenes as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Lucretia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo.
Solo concert performances at the Royal College of Music included Bach Mass in B minor, with one voice to a part, under Adrian Butterfield, and Helmut Lachenmann’s Consolation I, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and she also sang in the chorus of Bruckner’s Te deum conducted by Bernard Haitink. She participated in Masterclasses with Sarah Walker, Jane Manning, Patricia Rozario, Stephen Varcoe, Robert Levin and Patricia MacMahon. During her first year at the Royal College of Music she was taught by Margaret Cable and her repertoire coach was Stephen Wilder.
She read Music at Bristol University for her undergraduate degree, and studied singing with Lesley-Jane Rogers and recorder with Alan Davis. At Bristol she sang the Sorceress in Dido and Æneus and was a soloist in Copeland’s In the Beginning, the Mozart Vespers and the Fauré Requiem with the Bristol University Singers. She also conducted the University Chamber Choir in her final year, culminating in a performance of Mozart ‘Coronation’ Mass at St George’s, Brandon Hill.
Joanna continues to study singing with Phillip Guy Bromley. She also teaches at Bedales School and The Royal School, Haslemere.