Joanna Cole returns to the Melbourne stage following seasons in Sydney, Perth, New Zealand and Europe.  Her professional career began in 1989 with the Australian Opera as a member of the Esso Young Artists Programme, with her debut role being Barbarina in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. 

Joanna has been the recipient of various scholarships and awards, including the prestigious Remy Martin Australian Opera Award, the Marianne Mathy Scholarship and the Joan Sutherland Society Scholarship.  She has represented Australia in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in New York.  Her most recent award has been a Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship, sponsored by Dame Roma Mitchell, which enabled her to study Bel Canto opera and Italian language in Florence, Italy.

Her major operatic performances have included Leila in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (VSO), Micaela in Bizet's Carmen (WSO), and Iris in Handel's Semele (VSO), Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (OA), Morgana in Handel's Alcina (OA), Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (OA and Western Australian Opera), Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto (OA and Canterbury Opera, NZ), and Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme for (Canterbury Opera, NZ).

Joanna has sung Handel's Messiah in Oxford, UK and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Sir Charles Mackerras.  She appears regularly as a soloist with all the major Australian symphony orchestras for which her repertoire includes Poulenc's Gloria, Villa Lobos' Bacchianas Brasilieras, Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, Ravel's Scheherazade, Orff's Carmina Burana, Faure's Requiem, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, Mahler's Symphonies, No 4 & 8, Mozart's Requiem, Vespers, Exsultate Jubilate, Regina Coeli, Handel's Ode for St Cecilia's Day and Messiah.  She has also performed Elijah with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Joanna's future engagements include a performance of Mozart's Requiem with the Czechoslovakia Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner, the role of Irene in Wagner's Rienzi for Chelsea Opera, London, a Mozart tour of Queensland and New Zealand with the Australian Youth Orchestra, Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir at the Sydney Opera House, Faure's Requiem with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, UK, the role of Armynda in Mozart's Il Re Pastore with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and debut roles with the English National Opera.