View: Interview with Emma Keeling for Television New Zealand Breakfast

Joanne Roughton-Arnold is a lyric coloratura soprano with a flair for contemporary music, a range of over three octaves and a taste for a challenge. She is equally at home in well-known and new repertoire, on the opera stage and concert platform.

In addition to her vocal work, Joanne is Co-Founder, CEO & Creative Director of formidAbility, a female- and disability-led opera company breaking down barriers on- and off-stage and challenging perceptions of disability and inclusion in the arts. She is a producer and commissioner of new work, a powerful advocate for inclusion in the classical music and opera sector, and is regularly engaged by the UK's major arts organisations and funders as a consultant and advocate in accessibility and inclusion.

She began her vocal studies with Esther Salaman and Paul Hamburger while a postgraduate violinist at Trinity College of Music, London, before going on to become a prize-winning vocal student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, then continuing her studies with renowned operatic soprano Nelly Miricioiu and international vocal coach David Harper. She was a Crear Scholar in 2017 and 2018, participating in Malcolm Martineau’s annual residential masterclass on the west coast of Scotland.

Joanne's voice has been described as sparkling, with a timbral mix of brilliance and darkness. On stage, she is a natural actor with an electrifying presence and charisma, eliciting empathy and connection in a wide variety of roles. She also brings this compelling vitality and magnetism to work on the concert platform. Her trademark repertoire includes many contemporary works, including several world premieres, and oratorio interpretations of depth and emotional power. She is endlessly fascinated by the heady fusion of music and poetry that is Art Song, with a particular affinity for Germanic repertoire, especially the songs of Richard Strauss.

In her role as CEO and Creative Director of formidAbility, she regularly commissions and gives performances of new music with astonishing emotion and vision, from leading composers in the UK and abroad. Most recently, she commissioned Rylan Gleave to write an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s "The Happy Prince" for two singers, pianist and two Deaf actors. In March 2023, in recognition of her impact, Arts Council England awarded her a Developing Your Creative Practice grant to develop further as an arts leader and make formidable disabled talent mainstream instead of niche.

She is passionate about showcasing New Zealand music to a wider audience. In 2015 she commissioned Dame Gillian Whitehead and Fleur Adcock CNZM OBE to write "Iris Dreaming", a one-woman chamber opera based on the life of celebrated NZ writer and feminist, Iris Wilkinson. She performed and produced the world première as part of the 2016 Grimeborn Festival at London’s Arcola Theatre, with Sara Brodie directing and Jonathan Hargreaves conducting the Octandre Ensemble. In February 2017 she gave the New Zealand premiere of "Iris Dreaming" in partnership with NZTrio in a special adaptation for Nelson’s prestigious Adam Chamber Music Festival. This was broadcast by Radio NZ Concert in 2017, and again as part of the 2020 International Women's Day celebrations.

Early in 2020 the Royal Opera invited her to join a select panel of assessors shortlisting two female composers and librettists to be commissioned to write Art Song for the Jette Parker Young Artists. Later the same year she was sought out to sing the soprano solos on Daniel Pemberton’s soundtrack for “Rising Phoenix”, Netflix’ award-winning feature-length documentary on the Paralympics, directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.

She sings regularly with Paraorchestra under Charles Hazlewood: "The Nature of Why" (Perth Festival, Southbank Centre, The Lowry, Kneehigh Festival, Blackpool Empress Ballroom, Bristol Old Vic), which was shortlisted for a 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Award; "Kraftwerk: Re-werk" (WOMAD, Colston Hall, The Marble Factory) which was filmed for Charles Hazlewood’s Sky Arts series “Reinventing the Orchestra”, and "Minimalism Changed My Life" (Southbank Centre, Bridgewater Hall).

In 2015 she made her first appearance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in the virtuosic role of Semele in a research and development workshop on Roberto David Rusconi’s new opera, "Dionysos". She gave the world première of Lisa Illean’s "Artificial Night" with the Octandre Ensemble and has made concert appearances at HM Treasury (Churchill Room) and Handel House Museum. Her other operatic credits include Annina in "La Traviata" with the Chelsea Opera Group and Nelly Miricioiu (Queen Elizabeth Hall), La Zia in "Madama Butterfly" with Opera Holland Park (Christine Collins Young Artist), Methodist Preacher in "A Pastoral Messiah (Unexpected Opera)" and Sarah Whitehead in Malcolm Williamson’s "English Eccentrics" under Lionel Friend.

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