A Colorado native, Joanna Hyde grew up in a musical family and has traveled throughout North America and Europe to perform and teach at various workshops, concert venues, and festivals. Beginning with classical music, Joanna quickly expanded her playing to other styles including Irish, Texas swing, bluegrass, and Americana/folk. She won numerous fiddle contests throughout her youth, including placing in the top 5 of her age division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest. She spent many summers attending music festivals and camps, where she learned from renowned Irish fiddlers James Kelly, Liz Carroll, Tommy Peoples, Martin Hayes, and Antóin Mac Gabhann, among others. For her undergraduate studies, Joanna was awarded the Boettcher Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship to study at any 4-year institution in the state of Colorado. In 2009 she graduated magna cum laude from Colorado College with a BA in Music, and was recognized with the Music Department’s top performance and academic awards.

In 2011, Joanna was selected as one of 10 scholars from across the United States by a panel of distinguished arts professors and professionals to receive the Jack Kent Cook Foundation’s Graduate Arts Award. With this generous grant, she moved to Ireland to pursue an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, graduating in 2014. She also taught for BA and MA music programs during her time in UL (and continues to when possible). Currently, Joanna teaches music, and performs with a variety of projects including The Hydes, named New Group of the Year 2017 by the LiveIreland Awards, and the transatlantic trio, One for the Foxes, which was awarded 2021 “Album of the Year” by the ACLSR (American Celtic Listener-Supported Radio) Music Awards.

Joanna also composes, arranges, and performs in a duo with her husband, Tadhg Ó Meachair, with whom she is currently collaborating on an arts audio documentary for Cork County Council.