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Joanna Burton, born in Durham, read modern and medieval
languages and was
a Choral Exhibitioner at Gonville
& Caius College, Cambridge, before going on to study with Johanna Peters
at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was awarded the Sir
Frederick George Painter Prize for Singers. She now studies with Lillian
Watson. She has trained with the British Youth Opera, appearing as Elsie
Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard, and as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro
workshops with Sir Thomas Allen. Recognized both as a fine dramatic singer
and virtuoso comic actress, she recently appeared as Diana in Orpheus in the
Underworld, in Menotti’s The Telephone, and as Donna Elvira in Don
Giovanni with Opera Holland Park, and in the same role in the opera scenes
at Wexford Festival Opera. She was awarded the Gerard Arnhold Festival
Bursary for most promising young artist.
Her recent engagements have included performances with the Almeida Opera, at
the Aldeburgh Festival and with the English Touring Opera (Echo in Ariadne
auf Naxos, Adele in Die Fledermaus and Ginevra in Ariodante).
On the concert platform Joanna Burton has sung Christmas programmes
including extracts from La Boh¬me in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall,
Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate at the Greenwich Millennium Night
celebrations, and the same work in a Mozart programme before the Princess
Royal. She also took the title role in Handel’s Athalia in New York.
She is a regular guest artist with several choirs and orchestras and,
together with Ryland Angel, founded the Paris-based ‘Queen’s
Baroque Ensemble’ which specializes in the seventeenth and early
eighteenth century repertoire. Her work in the early music field has also
taken her to Germany, where she has performed solo Rameau cantatas as well
as the roles of La Musica, La Messaggiera and Ninfa in Monteverdi’s
L’Orfeo.
At the request of Dame Felicity Lott, she sang at the ceremony at which Dame
Felicity was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
Future plans include further work with Almeida Opera and her debut with
Opera North in Il Ta-barro and Der Zwerg.
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