Joy Hermalyn is one of the most exciting performers on the music scene today, with notable successes in opera, operetta, and musical theater. She made her operatic soprano debut as Minnie in La fanciulla del West with the Utah Festival Opera, having alternately performed the role of Abigail Adams there in 1776 during the same season. Ms. Hermalyn has performed extensively throughout the United States in diverse roles, among them Venus (Tannhauser), Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Cora (The Postman Always Rings Twice), and Abigail (The Crucible), with equally diverse companies from Anchorage to Austin to Kansas City to Tulsa. Other operatic highlights include leading roles in: Les Contes d’Hoffman, Madame Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, Der Rosenkavalier, Leoncavallo’s La Boheme, Il Trittico, Trouble in Tahiti, Faust, Cavalleria Rusticana, and in modern operas including: Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights (Stan Walden/Gertrude Stein), and The Consul. Ms. Hermalyn made her European operatic debut as the Countess/Page in Rigoletto in Spoleto, Italy, and has performed at the Festival d’Avignon in France. Last season, Joy premiered the role of Roxie Claflin in Victoria Bond’s Mrs. President for Anchorage Opera and at the Thalia Theatre in NYC; sang the lead role of the Little Dutch Boy in the premiere of John Sichel’s Little Dutch Opera at Raritan Valley Community College in NJ; and performed the role of Zita in Gianni Schicchi with the Queens Symphony under Constantine Kitsopoulos.

On the concert stage, Ms. Hermalyn has sung leading roles at Lincoln Center with L’Opera Français de New York under Yves Abel in Le Comte Ory, Les Deux Avares and Barbe-Bleue. Ms. Hermalyn appeared as Euridice in a concert version of Orfeo at Alice Tully Hall with the Metropolitan Greek Chorale. As a soloist, she has performed in concerts with the Westfield Symphony in Westfield, NJ. New Haven Symphony, Virginia Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Westchester Symphony, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Bergen Philharmonic (Englewood, NJ), and the Choral Society of the Hamptons in works including Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and New Year’s Eve Vienna Pops. At the New York State Theatre, Ms. Hermalyn has sung excerpts from the West Side Story Suite with the New York City Ballet. She made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in the premiere of Norman dello Joio’s Canticle for the Child.

Ms. Hermalyn completed the two-year run of the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof performing and flying in the role of Fruma Sarah. She made her Broadway debut as the Chaperone in Cyrano-The Musical and subsequently appeared on Broadway in featured roles in Candide, A Christmas Carol, and the highly acclaimed Baz Luhrmann production of Puccini’s La Bohème in San Francisco and in New York. Ms. Hermalyn was seen Off-Broadway at the Roundabout in the premiere of Maury Yeston’s new musical entitled Death Takes a Holiday, for which she also can be heard on the original cast recording. Ms. Hermalyn has also appeared in featured roles in numerous Encores! productions at City Center including Music in the Air, Pajama Game, Bloomer Girl and as part of the All-Star Lineup for the Gala Re-dedication of City Center. Her favorite regional credits include: Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (opposite Norm Lewis), Mama Rose in Gypsy, Witch in Into the Woods, Ilona in She Loves Me, Abigail Adams in 1776, the Old Lady in Candide and Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. A frequent performer at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, she was featured in Sweeney Todd with George Hearn in the title role, and returned for Meg Brockie in Brigadoon and Nettie Fowler in Carousel. Ms. Hermalyn returned to the Utah Festival Opera Company in Logan, Utah to perform the roles of Annie in Annie Get Your Gun and Abigail in The Crucible in repertory.

Proudly, Ms. Hermalyn has performed all of the major mezzo-soprano roles of Gilbert & Sullivan including Ruth, Buttercup and Katisha, hundreds of times in New York and on tour around America – most recently performing the role of Katisha in The Mikado for Dayton Opera. She spent a year in Paris studying art, language, and jazz singing, and participated in the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale Festival in Spoleto, Italy for several years. Recent and future engagements include: Sweeney Todd at the NY Philharmonic and Live from Lincoln Center starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel; The Sound of Music Live! On NBC with Carrie Underwood; Sister Berthe in The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall (with Stephanie Blythe); Rigoletto (Maddalena) – Enlow Hall, Union, NJ; Threepenny Opera (Jenny) at the Aaron Copland School of Music, NYC; Concerts in Orliac, France and Calabria, Italy entitled “Evviva Salvatore Guaragna!! – The Songs of Harry Warren”; readings of several new musicals by Ahrens/Flaherty (Anastasia), Rupert Holmes, Sheldon Harnick and a musicalized version of Enchanted April; and a concert with her percussionist husband “Beauty and the Beat – from Cage to Ginsberg to Auden,” at Kean University. She starred in Richard Pearson Thomas’ opera A Wake or a Wedding in NY with Encompass Opera Theatre under Nancy Rhodes to great acclaim. Ms. Hermalyn has a featured role in Kristina, a sung-thru musical by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA), has performed the work at Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall (London) and can be heard on the live CD.

In addition to degrees from New York University (B.S. – Music/French) and Mannes College of Music (Master of Music), Ms. Hermalyn studied art and translation at La Sorbonne, and acting from Wesley Balk and Charles Kakatsakis in New York. She is on the faculty of Kean University in Union, New Jersey as a master voice teacher and is in demand at Universities around the country for her solo concert/master classes on the “Art of the Crossover Singer.” Joy began teaching this year as a Voice Teacher at Yale University under the Shen Curriculum for Musical Theatre. She resides in New Jersey with her percussionist husband, violinist daughter and singing mini-schnauzer.