Born in New Zealand and raised in Wales, mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries was a choral scholar at the University of Cambridge, going on to train at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the National Opera Studio in London. She is currently an Opera Prelude Young Artist, and a former Britten-Pears Young Artist and Handel House Talent Artist.

Her operatic roles—for companies such as Opera Rara, Hampstead Garden Opera, Opera Holland Park, Scottish Opera, Barber Opera, Dartington Arts Festival, Merry Opera Company, and Fulham Opera—cover a wide repertoire, including the title role in Holst’s Sāvitri; Dido (Purcell Dido and Aeneas); Zerlina (Mozart Don Giovanni); Karolka (Janáček Jenůfa); Varvara (Janáček Kát’a Kabanová); Countess Ceprano (Verdi Rigoletto); Ottone (Handel Agrippina); and Jenny Hildebrand (Kurt Weill Street Scene). She has premiered roles in new operas, including Prometheus (Tim Benjamin The Fire of Olympus) and Tartine (David Blake & Keith Warner Scoring a Century) for British Youth Opera, and Girl/Psychiatrist for Scott Stroman and Tamsin Collison’s Fever Pitch, and has provided cover for Awen in Pwyll ap Siôn’s Gair ar Gnawd for Welsh National Opera.

Her concert performances include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Easter Oratorio, and St Matthew Passion; James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross; Handel’s Messiah; and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. A keen recitalist, Joanna has performed at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings, Pushkin House, and the National Portrait Gallery, and was awarded the Edith Brass Prize for Lieder at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2022, she competed in the Wigmore Hall / Bollinger International Song Competition with duo partner Thomas Ang.

Joanna runs SongPath with co-founder Jess Dandy, a mental health initiative bringing together music, nature and mental health in specially curated outdoor events, alongside free workshops for local branches of mental health charity Mind. Since 2019 they have taken SongPath to Cumbria (Ulverston International Music Festival), Yorkshire (Leeds Lieder) and Oxfordshire (Oxford Lieder). In 2021 Joanna was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Award for her new podcast Songs of the River.