A native of Bolivar, New York, American soprano Joélle Harvey has built a reputation as one of the finest singers of her generation, performing major roles on stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, Zurich Opera, Teatro La Fenice and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Harvey begins a richly-varied 2024-2025 season with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque for Haydn’s Creation, returning to Chicago later in the season for the composer’s Paukenmesse with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck conducting). She sings Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony (Stéphane Denève), a program of Poulenc and Ravel in a return to the Milwaukee Symphony, and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony Resurrection for Music Director Robin Ticciati’s final season with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The season promises performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Houston Symphony (Jonathan Cohen), selections from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Cincinnati Symphony, Bach’s Easter Oratorio & Magnificat with the Cleveland Orchestra and St. John Passion with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, both with Bernard Labadie, and Handel cantatas with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society and Jonathan Cohen. During the summer of 2025, she returns to the role of Anne Trulove in Chas Rader-Shieber’s new production of The Rake’s Progress at Des Moines Opera Opera. Future seasons include leading roles with the Bayerische Staatsoper and Santa Fe Opera.
The soprano began the 2023-2024 season with an appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall, singing the role of Tirsi in Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, with Harry Bicket leading The English Concert. She sang Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, North Carolina Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society, Fauré’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra, and a program of Haydn and Mozart with H&H. Season debuts included the Houston Symphony, for Orff’s Carmina Burana, and the New World Symphony, for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Notably, Harvey joined two long-tenured Music Directors for their farewell seasons: Louis Langrée, leading the Cincinnati Symphony in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and the Kansas City Symphony’s Michael Stern, who conducted performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.
Ms. Harvey’s 2022-2023 season brought 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 debuted with the Bamberg Symphoniker at the Lucerne Festival (Mahler’s 4th & Alma Mahler songs, conducted by Jakub Hrůša), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Handel’s Solomon with Robin Ticciati), and the Minnesota Orchestra (Haydn’s The Creation with Paul McCreesh). The season also held returns to the Cleveland Orchestra (Schubert Mass in E-flat in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Carmina Burana), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Mahler 2) and the Metropolitan Opera (Pamina in The Magic Flute). Notable chamber performances included 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 made her Jacksonville Symphony debut, for Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and debut 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 returned to the Glyndebourne Festival as the title role in a new production of Handel’s Semele, and to the BBC Proms, singing the Israelite Woman in Handel’s Samson with Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music.
An in-demand vocal soloist, the soprano regularly appears with the United States’ great orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic (Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah), the Cleveland Orchestra (Mahler’s 2nd & 4th, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5, Bach’s B Minor Mass), the San Francisco Symphony (Fidelio, Beethoven Mass in C, Handel’s Messiah, Carmina Burana), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Nixon in China, Beethoven Missa Solemnis). She has closely collaborated with a celebrated list of conductors, including Leonardo García Alarcón, Harry Bicket, Harry Christophers, Jonathan Cohen, Jakub Hrůša, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart and Franz Welser-Möst.
On the operatic stage, Ms. Harvey appears regularly at the Glyndebourne Festival, having bowed in 7 roles, including Handel’s Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Mozart’s Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Donizetti’s Adina (L’elisir d’amore). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute, Opernhaus Zürich debut as Aristea in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade, and her Royal Opera, Covent Garden debut as Susanna. Other appearances include Galatea in Acis and Galatea and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Flora in The Turn of the Screw with Houston Grand Opera, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress with Utah Opera, as well as Zerlina and Eurydice in Telemann’s Orpheus with New York City Opera.
Joélle Harvey is closely associated with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society, where her varied appearances have included Michal in Saul, Dalilia in Samson, and Iphis in Jephtha, and Haydn’s The Creation, led by Harry Christophers CBE in his final performances as H&H Artistic Director. She enjoys an ongoing collaboration with London’s The English Concert (Almirena in Rinaldo, Tigrane in Radamisto, Handel’s Messiah), made her solo Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2019 with pianist Allen Perriello, and has appeared at the BBC Proms as the Mater Gloriosa in Mahler’s 8th Symphony, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito and as a soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass. She performed John Adams’ El Niño at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and with the London Symphony Orchestra, in a performance conducted by the composer. Other career highlights include appearances with the Saint Louis Symphony (Mahler 2), Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Mozart Requiem), Toronto Symphony (Mahler 2), and repeat appearances with the orchestras of Cincinnati, Kansas City, Milwaukee, North Carolina, and Indianapolis.
A celebrated chamber musician, Ms. Harvey has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music @ Menlo, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, Cappella Mediterranea, Arcangelo and the Pygmalion Ensemble.
Joélle Harvey received Second Prize in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers. She was the recipient of a First Prize Award from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and a Sara Tucker Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. She is a recipient of the Shoshana Foundation’s 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 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.
Photo Credit: Arielle Doneson