Joélle Harvey

Soprano

Joélle Harvey Photo credit: Arielle Doneson.

A native of Bolivar, New York, soprano Joélle Harvey received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She began her career training at Glimmerglass Opera (now The Glimmerglass Festival) and the Merola Opera Program. Her 2022–23 season brings appearances with a host of internationally acclaimed organizations. She joined the New York Philharmonic as the soprano soloist in a gala performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, celebrating the opening of David Geffen Hall and conducted by Jaap van Zweden. She debuts with the Bamberg Symphoniker (Mahler’s 4th & Alma Mahler songs, conducted by Jakub Hruša), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Handel’s Solomon with Robin Ticciati), and the Minnesota Orchestra (Haydn’s The Creation with Paul McCreesh). The season also holds returns to the Cleveland Orchestra (Schubert’s Mass in E-flat in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Carmina Burana), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Mahler’s 2nd) and the Metropolitan Opera (Pamina in The Magic Flute). Notable chamber performances will include a recital with baritone John Moore and pianist Allen Perriello for Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and appearances with the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center and Palm Beach. She also makes her Jacksonville Symphony debut with Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and debuts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in an all-Handel program conducted by Bernard Labadie at Carnegie Hall. During the summer of 2023, she returns to the Glyndebourne Festival as the title role in a new production of Handel’s Semele, directed by Adele Thomas.

In the previous season, Ms. Harvey’s varied appearances included Michal in Saul with the Handel & Haydn Society and Inès in a concert performance of La favorite with Washington Concert Opera. She also joined the Indianapolis Symphony, Virginia Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Les Violons du Roy in concert.

During the 2014-2015 season, Ms. Harvey’s numerous engagements included repeat appearances as Sicle in Ormindo with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Galatea in Acis and Galatea with the Killkenny Festival, and role debuts as Marzelline in Fidelio with San Francisco Symphony and Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Utah Opera. On the concert stage, she appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra (Bach B minor Mass), Tafelmusik, Handel & Haydn Society (Messiah and St. Matthew Passion), LA Philharmonic (Missa Solemnis), North Carolina Symphony (Messiah), Dallas Symphony (Mozart Requiem) and the Pygmalion Ensemble (Mozart Mass in C minor).

Ms. Harvey’s 2013-2014 season included her debut with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London as Sicle in Ormindo, further performances with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Serpetta in La finta giardiniera, Adina in L’elisir d’amore with the Glyndebourne Festival Touring Company, and the Dallas Opera for Miranda in Death and the Powers, as well as appearances on the concert stage with The Handel & Haydn Society (Dalila in Handel’s Samson), New York Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah), San Francisco Symphony (Beethoven’s Mass in C),Milwaukee Symphony (Schubert’s Mass No. 6) and the Kansas City Symphony (Handel’s Messiah).

During the 2012-2013 season, the soprano was engaged to sing Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro on tour with the Glyndebourne Festival and also with Arizona Opera; two appearances with the San Francisco Symphony: Handel’s Messiah, conducted by Ragnar Bohlin, and music from Peer Gynt, conducted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas; the role of Tigrane in performances of Radamisto at Carnegie Hall and in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Harry Bicket and The English Concert; the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats for her debut with The New York Philharmonic; and Iphis in a United States tour of Handel’s Jephtha with Harry Christophers and Handel & Haydn Society. She concluded the season in a return to Festival d’Aix-en-Provence for Zerlina in a revival of Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Marc Minkowski.

In the summer of 2011, Ms. Harvey made her role and company debut with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as Galatea in Acis and Galatea under the direction of Leonardo García Alarcón. The 2011-2012 season found performances of Galatea at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Handel’sMessiah for her debut with the Kansas City Symphony, and in a return to the San Francisco Symphony; Michal in a performance of Handel’s Saul at London’s Barbican with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, which she also recorded with the company; and a return to New York City Operafor the role of Eurydice in Telemann’s Orpheus. She concluded the season in a debut withGlyndebourne Festival Opera in a revival of Jonathan Kent’s acclaimed production of The Fairy Queen. She also performed Bach’s B Minor Mass with The English Concert at the BBC Promsand in Leipzig.

The soprano’s 2010-2011 season included a return engagement with the San Francisco Symphony as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana, performances of Handel’s Messiah in Spain with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Sophie in Werther with Washington Concert Opera under the baton of Antony Walker, and creating the role of Miranda in the world premiere of Death and the Powers at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

The soprano performed the role of Miranda in a workshop of Tod Machover’s new opera Death and the Powers in September 2009, and subsequently made her debut at New York City Opera as Zerlina in Christopher Alden’s new production of Don Giovanni. She appeared as Flora in The Turn of the Screw for her debut with Houston Grand Opera, and returned to Eugene Opera to sing the role of Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. The spring of 2010 found Ms. Harvey at Atlanta Opera, where she covered Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and sang matinee performances of the role. She also performed the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with theOrchestra of St. Luke’s at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Ms. Harvey bowed at Glimmerglass Opera in the summer of 2010 as Seleuce in the U.S. professional stage premiere of Händel’s Tolomeo, where critic David Shengold declared she “dazzled physically and vocally”.

During the 2008-2009 season, Ms. Harvey made company debuts with Dallas Opera as Barbarina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Portland Opera as Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and Eugene Opera as Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. On the concert and recital platforms, Ms. Harvey made debuts with the San Francisco Symphony as Leila in performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe conducted by George Manahan, and with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song at Merkin Concert Hall and the Caramoor Festival. In the summer of 2009, Ms. Harvey returned to Glimmerglass Opera to sing the role of Belinda in Jonathan Miller’s new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

In the summer of 2008, Ms. Harvey performed the role of Zerlina in Catherine Malfitano’s critically acclaimed production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. As a member of Glimmerglass Opera’s 2007 Young American Artists Program, Ms.Harvey performed the role of Cupid in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld to great critical acclaim and covered soprano Lisa Saffer in the role of La Princesse in Philip Glass’ Orphée.

Ms. Harvey received Second Prize in Houston Grand Opera’s 2008 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers. She is a recipient of the Shoshana Foundation’s 2007 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, and was also presented with the John Alexander Memorial Award and the coveted Sam Adams Award for Achievement in Acting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Ms. Harvey received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in vocal performance from CCM, where she performed the roles of Amor in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, Emmie and Flora in, respectively, Britten’s Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw, Poppea in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Sophie in Massenet’s Werther, and Nannetta in Falstaff.