Biography

About Joanna Wyld

Jo WyldJoanna Wyld was born in London and educated at Newstead Wood School in Orpington and with the Bromley Youth Music Trust before reading Music at New College, Oxford, where she was an Instrumental Scholar. She studied with Edward Higginbottom, Michael Burden, David Skinner and Robert Saxton, taught music theory to the choristers of New College Choir, and was listed as one of the Women of Distinction in 25 Years of Women at New College.

Joanna then took a Masters degree (MMus) in composition at King’s College, London where she was taught by George Benjamin, Robert Keeley, Jonathan Cole and Cliff Eisen. She also studied flute with Professor Clare Southworth at the Royal Academy of Music. Earlier in life Joanna attained a mark of 100 per cent in her English Literature A Level.

Joanna was Principal Flute of all the major Oxford orchestras. She was the joint winner of the Oxford University Sinfonia Composition Competition for her orchestral work Jethro Furber’s Change of Heart, based on the novel Omensetter’s Luck by William H. Gass. Joanna’s compositions were also performed by the Choir of New College, Oxford, and in workshops with the BBC Singers and composer/pianist John McCabe, who described her piano Sonatina as “exciting”. She was commissioned by Edward Higginbottom to orchestrate a Bruckner Motet for performance by the combined choirs of New College, Christ Church and Magdalen, Oxford in the Sheldonian Theatre, and has re-orchestrated two Mozart operas for performance by opera company Hand Made Opera.

Joanna Wyld is an experienced editor and proofreader, and between 2001 and 2007 was Editor at Sanctuary Classics. She is Publications Officer at the Royal College of Music and Editor at Odradek Records.

In 2009 Joanna helped with the writing of the Stop the Traffik book by Steve Chalke and Cherie Blair, a resource used in the UN’s campaign to combat human trafficking. This led to her being invited to co-write two further volumes with Chalke.

In 2014 she won the Oxford University Press spoof Grove Dictionary article competition, and was also awarded both second and third runner-up prizes. The OUP judges noted: “… in wit and prose most [of the shortlisted entries] seem to have flowed from the fingertips of the same inspired author”, one judge adding that the winning entry was “the only one that made me laugh out loud.”

Joanna was longlisted for the Live Canon International Poetry Prize 2019; her poem was published in the Live Canon Anthology.

Joanna wrote the libretto for Robert Hugill’s chamber opera, The Gardeners which was premiered at Conway Hall on 18 June 2019 and was performed again on 9 September 2019 at the Garden Museum.

Joanna wrote a note in verse for a disc narrated by Harry Enfield, as well as writing a short biography of Enfield, commissioned by his agent. On the strength of this release, Magpie’s Susan Stranks commissioned Joanna to write a poem for the children’s online radio station Fun Radio Live. Joanna has worked as a primary school music specialist and private flute teacher. She plays flute in a trio called Trillium and in the award-winning XBY concert band.

Joanna played Sarah in Artform’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at the Bob Hope Theatre in Eltham, February 2023.