Joanne Lessner is a singer, actor, and writer. She is the author of the novel Pandora’s Bottle, available from Flint Mine Press. Her play, Critical Mass, winner of the 2009 Heiress Productions Playwriting Competition, received its New York premiere at the Lion Theatre on Theatre Row in October 2010. She has written the book and lyrics to several musicals with her husband, composer/conductor Joshua Rosenblum, including the cult hit Fermat's Last Tango, which received its Off-Broadway premiere at the York Theatre Company in November 2000. The original cast recording became a bestseller, and the DVD has been screened at festivals from New Jersey to New Zealand. The Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon, Portugal, presented the European premiere and subsequently gave the world premiere of their next musical, Einstein’s Dreams, based on the celebrated novel by Alan Lightman. Their musical Garbo and Me has been presented in concert both at the York Theatre Company and at the historic Paramount Theatre in Rutland, Vermont. Other works in progress include Hector and Harriet, a screenplay about French composer Hector Berlioz and his obsession with Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, and The Temporary Detective, a mystery novel. Joanne is also a regular contributing writer to Opera News.

A remarkably versatile performer, Joanne has appeared on Broadway in Cyrano: The Musical, and in other New York City venues in roles as varied as Marta in Company, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Cis in the cabaret version of William Bolcom’s Casino Paradise, which the New York Times named "one of the year’s ten best events in classical music." She has performed in concert as a soloist with New York City Opera, New York Festival of Song, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, and the Harrisburg and Albany Symphonies. Joanne has played ten principal Gilbert and Sullivan roles with the award-winning Blue Hill Troupe. These range from recognizable names from the popular canon (Josephine, Yum-Yum, Phyllis) to the more obscure Mercury in Thespis (with a reconstructed score by Thomas Z. Shepard) and Julia Jellicoe in The Grand Duke, for which she was honored as Best Female Performer at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England. Regional roles include Trina in Falsettos (Weston Playhouse), Anne in A Little Night Music (Skylight Opera Theatre), and Constanze in Amadeus (Wayside Theatre). Joanne holds a BA in music, summa cum laude, from Yale University.