(1968) and made appearances on programs hosted by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, and David Frost.
There, she became interested in musical theatre, and began taking voice lessons with contralto Marion Freschl, the teacher of Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson, who reoriented her career towards opera.
[15] She pursued further training at the Zurich-based International Opera Studio under the leadership of Herbert Graf and with composer Gian Carlo Menotti at the Spoletto Festival.
[15][16] Her classmates at the International Opera Studio in Zurich included sopranos Dame Gwyneth Jones and Felicia Weathers, and one of her teachers at the institute was Lotfi Mansouri.
[25] That same year she recorded Claude Debussy's Le Martyre de saint Sébastien with conductor Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic,[26] and was one of the three ladies in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conductor Erich Leinsdorf, and Beverly Sills as the Queen of the Night.
[30] Variety critic Larry Michie wrote in his review of the production, "Joanna Simon was enormously successful as the courtesan.
[34] Also in 1968, Simon portrayed Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's Lulu with the American National Opera Company and conductor Sarah Caldwell,[35] made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Piacere in Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo,[15] and starred in a concert of the music of Lerner and Loewe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Roger Wagner at the Hollywood Bowl.
[43] She also collaborated with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic that year to perform and record excerpts from the role of Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.
[44] She concluded the 1968/1969 season portraying the title role in Bizet's Carmen opposite Placido Domingo as Don Jose with the Israel Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv.
[45] In 1970 Simon sang the role of Irene for the first recording ever made of Handel's Tamerlano with conductor John Moriarty and the Chamber Orchestra of Copenhagen.
[47] In 1972 she was the alto soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass and Bruckner's Te Deum with the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festival; a performance which was broadcast live on radio internationally.
[51][52] Also in 1972, she created the title role in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's Black Widow at the Seattle Opera for her debut with that company.
[14][54] In 1975 Simon portrayed the heroine Pelagia in the world premiere of Robert Starer's The Last Lover at the Caramoor Music Festival.
[59][60] In 1982 Simon performed as the soloist in Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of conductor Leopold Stokowski.
[63] In 1984 she performed in her sister Carly Simon's song "Turn of the Tide" which was commissioned by the Democratic Party for use in political campaigning.
[65] In 1986 she performed in an evening of chamber music composed by Gary William Friedman at the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre for a concert entitled "The Him Nobody Knows".
[74] In 1988 she was the co-host of Ovation magazine's televised Classical Awards with flautist James Galway which was produced by Alexander H. Cohen for broadcast on the Arts & Entertainment Network.
[78] The latter interview proved to be fortuitous for her sister Lucy, as Norman indicated that she was looking for a composer to create a musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 children's novel The Secret Garden.
[79] On December 4, 1976, Joanna Simon married Gerald Walker, an articles editor for The New York Times Magazine and author of the book Cruising.