Lisbon-born Joana Seara completed her university degree in journalism and worked on a national arts newspaper before moving to London and entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She won several awards and was supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Wingate Foundation, the E M Behrens Charitable Trust and the Worshipful Company of Barbers whilst studying for her BMus, Masters in Performance and Opera Course.

She made her opera debut with Zerlina (Don Giovanni) in the Netherlands and went on to sing Gretel for Opera Holland Park, Damigella (The Coronation of Poppea) for English National Opera, Despina (Così fan tutte) in Holland, England and Ireland, and Galatea (Acis and Galatea) in France. More recently, she sang Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Frasquita (Carmen) and Tebaldo / Voce da cielo (Don Carlo) at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. Joana performs regularly in the Músicos do Tejo’s opera productions, having played Vannella (Pergolesi’s Lo frate ’nnamorato) and Vespina (Almeida’s La Spinalba).

Joana has collaborated with the Gulbenkian Orchestra (with Lawrence Foster and Simone Young), The King’s Consort (with Matthew Halls) and the London Mozart Players, the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (with Pedro Carneiro), the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (with Augustin Dumay and Nicholas Kraemer) and the Concerto Campestre (with Pedro Castro). She has also sung at the Île de France, Ambronay, Mafra and Varna festivals.