The daughter of Frank and Margaret Ethel Gabriel (née Cooke) Carden, Joan Carden was educated at Prahran Technical School. She later attended Trinity College of Music (London) and the London Opera Centre. After graduating from the London Opera Centre she performed in the United Kingdom and Germany before joining the Australian Opera (now Opera Australia) in 1971. During her career Joan Carden sang Gilda (Rigoletto) with the Australian Opera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Glyndeborne Festival and the Metropolitan Opera and Constanza (The Abduction from the Serablio) with the Scottish Opera.

In 1987 Joan Carden received the Dame Joan Hammond Award. She was the recipient of an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship in 1993 and is Patron of the National Voice Centre at the University of Sydney and the Victorian College of Arts Opera.

Events

1971 - 2003

Preformed with the Australian Opera (now Opera Australia)

1974

Preformed at Covent Garden

1977

Preformed at Houston, USA

1977

Preformed at the Glyndebourne Festival

1978

Preformed with the Scottish Opera

1978

Preformed with the Metropolitan Opera Tour

1980

Performed at the Kennedy Centre, Washington

1981

Performed with English Opera North

31 December 1981

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (OBE)

1982

Performed with Miami Opera

June 1988

Awarded the Dame Joan Hammond Award

13 June 1988

Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

1993

Awarded Australian Artists Creative Fellowship

Sources used to compile this entry: Herd, Margaret (ed.), Who's who in Australia 2002, 38 edn, Crown Content, Melbourne, 2002, 2020 pp; accessed 31 October 2002.