Joanna Simon

Joanna Elizabeth Simon, born October 20, 1936, in New York City, was an American mezzo-soprano who performed in opera, concert, and on Broadway. She died on October 19, 2022. Simon grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and was the daughter of Richard L. Simon, co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing company. Her siblings included singer and songwriter Carly Simon, singer and musical theatre composer Lucy Simon, and photographer Peter Simon.

Simon attended Riverdale Country School before enrolling at Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned a degree in philosophy in 1962. Her interest in musical theatre developed during her college years, and she began voice training with contralto Marion Freschl, whose previous students included Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson. Freschl redirected Simon's focus toward opera. She pursued further training at the International Opera Studio in Zurich under Herbert Graf, where her classmates included sopranos Gwyneth Jones and Felicia Weathers and one of her instructors was Lotfi Mansouri. She also studied with composer Gian Carlo Menotti at the Spoleto Festival.

Her opera debut came in November 1962 with the New York City Opera, where she played Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. That same year she won both the regional division of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marian Anderson Award, and she competed in the national finals of the Met auditions on March 23, 1962, performing the aria "Che farò senza Euridice" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. She went on to perform regularly in operas and concerts internationally from 1962 through 1986, with periodic appearances continuing into the late 1990s.

Among her early concert engagements, Simon served as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the New York Philharmonic in 1965, conducted by William Steinberg, alongside tenor Richard Cassilly. She recorded the same work that year for Command Records with Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1964 she performed the role of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus at Lewisohn Stadium with Franz Allers conducting. In 1966 she was the alto soloist in Beethoven's Mass in C major with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy at Carnegie Hall and the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and she recorded Claude Debussy's Le Martyre de saint Sébastien with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. That same year she appeared as one of the three ladies in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conductor Erich Leinsdorf, and Beverly Sills as the Queen of the Night.

A defining moment in Simon's career came in 1967, when she created the role of the courtesan Pantasilea in the world premiere of Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C., for the Washington Opera Society. The performance brought her international recognition, and she later reprised the role at Lincoln Center when the New York City Opera staged the opera in March 1968, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1972. She recorded the part for CBS Records in 1968 with conductor Julius Rudel. Also in 1968, she portrayed Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's Lulu with the American National Opera Company under conductor Sarah Caldwell, made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Piacere in Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, and appeared in a concert of Lerner and Loewe music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Roger Wagner at the Hollywood Bowl.

In 1969, Simon performed the roles of Mehitabel in George Kleinsinger's Archy and Mehitabel and the title role in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges with The Little Orchestra Society. That year she also served as the alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the alto soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at the Ravinia Festival, the alto soloist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Carmel Bach Festival, and the soloist in Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra, with the composer conducting. She additionally collaborated with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic to perform and record excerpts from the role of Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. She concluded the 1968–1969 season in the title role of Bizet's Carmen opposite Plácido Domingo as Don José with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv.

In 1970, Simon became the first singer to record the role of Irene in Handel's Tamerlano, doing so with conductor John Moriarty and the Chamber Orchestra of Copenhagen. The following year she was a featured performer on the final episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, broadcast on March 28, 1971, and served as a soloist with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in Central Park. She also appeared as a panelist on What's My Line? in 1968 and made television appearances on programs hosted by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, and David Frost.

Simon performed the title role in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's Black Widow at the Seattle Opera in 1972, the same year she appeared on Broadway in A Celebration of Richard Rodgers. In 1975 she took on the role of Pelagia in the world premiere of Robert Starer's The Last Lover at the Caramoor Music Festival. Her recording work extended to collaborations with the Vienna Philharmonic in addition to the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1984 she sang on her sister Carly's recording of "Turn of the Tide," a song commissioned by the Democratic Party for political campaigning, and she also contributed as a backup singer on albums by both of her sisters.

After largely stepping back from professional singing in 1986, Simon joined PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour as arts correspondent, a position she held from 1986 to 1992. Her work on the program earned her an Emmy Award. She subsequently worked as a real estate broker in Manhattan with the Fox Residential Group. Simon was married to novelist Gerald Walker from 1976 until his death in 2004, and was the companion of Walter Cronkite from 2005 until his death in 2009.