Joanna Simon

Joanna Elizabeth Simon, oldest sister of singer Carly Simon, was an American mezzo-soprano and TV journalist. As a singer, Simon was known for possessing a distinctively "smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano". She performed regularly in operas and concerts internationally from 1962 through 1986, and thereafter made only periodic performances into the late 1990s. In 1962, she won the regional division of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marian Anderson Award, also making her opera debut that year at the New York City Opera as Mozart's Cherubino. She created the role of Pantasilea in the world premiere of Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo in 1967 with the Washington Opera Society (now the Washington National Opera), which brought her international fame, and she recorded the part for CBS Records.