Joanna Ehlers is Kansas City’s Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano. A Kansas City native, Ms. Ehlers is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, from which she holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees. She frequents Kansas City stages as a chorister and a soloist for area vocal ensembles, most notably Cardinalis Chamber Choir and the GRAMMY-Award winning Kansas City Chorale. Ms. Ehlers has performed with KC VITAs Chamber Choir, Te Deum Chamber Choir, Antiqua, Kantorei KC and the Missouri Oratorio Society.
Ms. Ehlers has performed with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Landlocked Opera Inc., Lawrence Opera Theatre, Opera West, Union Avenue Opera and in several independent productions. In 2021, Ms. Ehlers was a semi-finalist for the Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award for the American Prize in vocal performance. Recent opera performances include Landlocked Opera’s Tartuffe (M. Pernelle, 2022) She originated the roles of Sella and Minnie Alden in Dale Ramsey’s Mother Noah and Allison McIntosh and Trip Venturella’s chamber opera The Murderess respectively in in 2023. In 2024, Ms. Ehlers performed the role of Brangaene in a concert version of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; the state’s first performance of the opera in over seventy years. Building upon this success, she launched Dramatic Voices Midwest, an organization dedicated to the nurturing and promotion of singers with dramatic voices, and the preservation of dramatic operatic repertoire. In July of 2025, she produced and starred in Wagner’s Die Walküre (Fricka, Schwertleite.) She traveled to St. Louis, Missouri in August to perform the role of Herodias in Union Avenue Opera’s highly-acclaimed production of Salome.
Upcoming performances include Baba (The Medium,) Mother/Witch (Hansel and Gretel) Klytaemnestra (Elektra) and Azucena (Il trovatore.)
When she isn’t performing, Ms. Ehlers can be found in her garden, playing with her house pets or trying new recipes in the kitchen. An avid hiker, Ms. Ehlers enjoys visiting area nature preserves and national parks with her family. She resides in Independence, Missouri.
