Joanne Hounsell

Joanne Hounsell is a well known Canadian Soprano and Voice Teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Music (Mount Allison University); Master of Music (University of British Columbia) and an Artist Diploma from the University of Toronto. She continued her theatre training at the Banff School of Fine Arts & Vancouver Opera Touring Company. Ms Hounsell was a professional young artist in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.

Her vocal and dramatic talents have secured her prominent engagements with major opera companies and symphonies including the Canadian Opera Company ( Drusilla in The Coronation of Poppea; Stephano in Romeo et Juliette; Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro) ; L’Opéra de Montréal ( Governess in The Turn of the Screw); Pacific Opera ( Despina in Cosi; Valencienne in Merry Widow; Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream); Calgary ( Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring), Edmonton ( Peep-bo in Mikado; Magnolia in Showboat in Concert) and Manitoba Opera ( Les Contes d'Hoffman, Old Maid and the Thief & The Telephone). She received critical acclaim for her work at the Stratford Festival ( Josephine in HMS Pinafore). Ms. Hounsell has been featured in a Debut Solo Recital with CBC Radio at the National Arts Centre & National Gallery. She has performed as Soprano Soloist with Nova Scotia and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras ( The Music of Franz Lehar and Viennese Operetta). Other credits include Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Brahms' Requiem; Vaughan William's Sea Symphony; Haydn's Seasons and The Creation; Mozart's Davide Penitente and Vesperae, Solennes de Confessore with major symphony orchestras. She received the Sylva Gelber award from Canada Council as outstanding musician 1996 and the Maureen Forrester Award for artistic excellence from the Stratford Festival. She has studied with Norma Newton and Warren Jones in New York and her mentor Dixie Ross Neill in Toronto ON. Ms. Hounsell was the Head of Voice at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and has taught voice at the University of Lethbridge, University of Victoria and Carousel Theatre School ( Vancouver). She has completed training in C.C.M. with Matt Edwards and will be taking the Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method this summer.

Recently Ms. Hounsell joined the College of Examiners and is an accredited voice teacher with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto ON. She has been a member of Canadian Actors Equity for over 25 years and a member of ACTRA, NATS and BCRMTA. Her students have been recognized for outstanding achievement at the provincial, national and international level as emerging artists and professional artists. The key influences in her life are the love of music, a belief in the importance of the arts, the training of young artists and a passion for nurturing the arts at all levels.