Following her debut with the Canadian Opera Company as Micaela in Carmen, JOAN PATENAUDE-YARNELL, a Canadian-born soprano joined both the New York City and San Francisco Operas. She has also sung with opera companies throughout North America and Europe. Her roles have included Violetta in La Traviata, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Gilda in Rigoletto, Nedda in I Pagliacci, the title role in Suor Angelica, Mimì in La Bohème, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Elle in La Voix Humaine, and Héro in Béatrice et Bénédict.

As a recitalist she performed internationally under the auspices of the Canadian Government, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Les Jeunesses musicales, and the United States Department of State.. With orchestra she sang under the batons of Sir Charles Mackerras, Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, Julius Rudel, and James De Preist. Her recordings include Songs of the Great Opera Composers with Mikael Eliasen, pianist. on the Musical Heritage Society label as well as releases on the C.B.C. International Series and Vanguard labels.

She joined the Curtis Institute voice faculty in 1996 and Manhattan School of Music in 1997. She is the artistic director of Centro Studi Lirica, a summer program for young singers in Italy. In 2002 she became the editor of her own column, “The Private Studio,” in The Journal of Singing, a publication of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Her students perform with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Paris Opéra, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Stuttgart Opera and are participants in the young artists programs at Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Center (Zurich, Switzerland), and Volksoper (Vienna). Several of her students are current winners of the George London Foundation Awards, Marilyn Horne Foundation Awards, and Puccini Foundation Awards, as well as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions First Prize Winner, 2004.

Her Master Class "The Principals of Bel Canto" is presented throughout the U.S. and Canada (Rice University, Roosevelt University, University of British Columbia, New York Singing Teachers Association).

Manhattan School of Music voice faculty since 1997.