Mezzo-soprano
Born in Portland, Oregon, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris attended Gonzaga University in Spokane prior to her scholarship studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She continued speech and voice studies with Clifford Jackson and Frederica Schmitz-Svevo while appearing in off-Broadway and road productions and with harpist Jay Miller at the Cafe Carlyle, the Waldorf-Astoria’s Peacock Alley, and other Manhattan night spots.
Since 1973, Ms. Morris has concertized with her husband and accompanist, William Bolcom, singing popular songs from the late 19th-century through the 1920s and ’30s, the latest songs by Leiber and Stoller, and cabaret songs by Mr. Bolcom and poet-lyricist Arnold Weinstein.
Since 1981, Ms. Morris has taught a cabaret class at the University of Michigan School of Music. In April 1998, she produced a new musical there, Mina and Colossus, written by the young composer Sam Davis and based on the life of poet Mina Loy. In April 2003, Ms. Morris wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in a musical revue, The Police Gazette, based on materials housed in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan. In December 2005, she wrote, produced, directed, and had a featured role in Barnum’s Nightingale, based on Jenny Lind’s concert tour of America in 1850 and sponsored by P. T. Barnum. The latter two entertainments were presented at the Clements Library, where Ms. Morris is adjunct curator.
In April 2004, Ms. Morris was a soloist in the performance of Mr. Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which celebrated the reopening of the newly renovated Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The concert, which combined 450 orchestra and chorus members from the University of Michigan School of Music and the surrounding community with professional soloists, was conducted by Leonard Slatkin and took place almost 20 years to the day after its 1984 U.S. premiere. The Naxos recording of this event went on to win four Grammy Awards. In 1984, she sang in the world premiere of Mr. Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in Stuttgart and the U.S. premiere in Ann Arbor. She has also performed Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London’s Royal Festival Hall, broadcast live over BBC Radio 3 (1996), and in Costa Mesa with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra (2003).
In 1979, she played the role of Polly in the Guthrie Theater’s production of The Beggar’s Opera (with music by Darius Milhaud and Mr. Bolcom). In the 1987 premiere of Mr. Bolcom’s Fourth Symphony, she sang Theodore Roethke’s poem The Rose with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under conductor Leonard Slatkin; the 1988 recording on New World Records was subsequently nominated for a Grammy. She repeated the work with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in May 1996. In April 1990, Ms. Morris was featured in the world premiere of the Weinstein/Bolcom musical theater work Casino Paradise, and can be heard on the cast album issued by Koch Classics. She repeated her part as the Nurse for the May 2004 revival at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia and again as part of the American Songbook Series in the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center in February 2005. In January 2007, she narrated Walton’s Facade Suite with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.
On their travels throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad, Ms Morris and Mr. Bolcom frequently give masterclasses focusing on “classic American popular song.” They’ve taken part in recent residencies at Rice University, Central Washington University, the Virginia Arts Festival, Tanglewood, and the University of Evansville.