Joyce Lee Fieldsend (maiden name Boden), was born on 13.02 1948 in Torquay in the county of Devon, England

She was an undergraduate at Birmingham University from 1966 to 1969 where she gained a Bachelor of Honours Degree in Music.She also became an Associate of the Royal College of Music (ARCM) in Performance while she was at university.

1969-1970 Joyce did the Accompanying course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and in 1971 she won the Covent Garden Scholarship to go to the London Opera Centre for a postgraduate year as a repetiteur where she graduated with distinction. (Now the National Opera Studio)

Joyce began her career as a full-time repetiteur for Scottish Opera in 1973 until 1983 where she had the enormous privilege of working for many years with the founder and Music Director of the company, Sir Alexander Gibson. During these years she developed a large and varied repertoire and played many keyboard and harpsichord continuo parts on five European tours of operas by Benjamin Britten and Hans Werner Henze. Joyce continued to work part of every season for Scottish Opera until 1993 and also ran the Opera Studio at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for 18 months from 1990. and was assistant conductor for the world premiere and recording of the opera Mary Queen of Scots by Thea Musgrave.

From 1984 until 2000, Joyce was a permanent member of the Music Staff of the Glyndebourne Festival and Touring opera where she was principal pianist and coach for at least two operas in every season.During her time at Glyndebourne she was chief coach on the video of Death in Venice, she played the harpsichord continuo on the video of La Clemenza di Tito and featured in many live broadcasts including Ermione by Rossini.

Joyce joined the San Francisco Opera music staff in 1992 where she was the senior coach in over 30 operas for the next 10 years . Among these productions it is worth mentioning the world premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire by Sir Andrè Previn in 1998.

She was able to combine San Francisco Opera and Glyndebourne work with guest engagements such as Der Ring Des Nibelungen for Seattle Opera in 2001, Der Rosenkavalier in Basel, Attila for Opera North, Tancredi for the Wexford Festival, Tosca and Der Rosenkavalier for the Hong Kong International Festival, Katya Kabanova for the New Zealand International Festival, Jenufa in Edmonton, Canada, Rigoletto in Dallas,La Calisto, I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana for the Glimmerglass Festival, New Israeli Opera and Mary Queen of Scots for the Virginia Opera Association.

From 2002 until 2016 Joyce lived in Venice,Italy and worked in many European opera houses-principally the Teatro La Fenice in Venice where she was responsible for the musical preparation of over 25 productions too numerous to mention.