Janet Perry was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. As the daughter of musical parents, she had early opportunity to receive lessons on piano and violin, and later, ballet. She was active in young-people's theater productions, and soon discovered an unusual vocal talent, which led her to her debut as child star in "The Wizard of Oz" at St. Paul Civic Opera at age 11.

    On completing high school she continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music under the care of Eufemia Giannini Gregory. Her degree "Bachelor of Music" being completed, she immediately left for Europe and was engaged forthwith at the opera of Linz, Austria, for two seasons. After further engagements in the Gärtnerplatz Theater of Munich, Germany, and the Cologne opera, she returned to Munich to the Bavarian State Opera. By then her career was firmly established in the lighter Mozart, Strauss, and Italian opera roles. She subsequently appeared as guest in most of the major European opera houses, and in numerous festivals, notably Salzburg, Wiener Festwochen, Glyndbourne, Aix-en-Provence, Bregenz, Granada, Martina Franca, Montpellier, and under such conductors as Herbert v.Karajan, Kleiber, Böhm, Muti, Barenboim, Harnoncourt, Rostropovitch, Kubelik, Sawallisch. She played principal roles in many opera and operetta productions for television and film: Zurich's production of Monteverdi's "Poppea" and "Ulisse" with Ponnelle/Harnoncourt, Salzburg Festival's "Rosenkavalier", "Falstaff","under Herbert v.Karajan, the Ponnelle/Bohm "Nozze di Figaro", in Germany there were "Zigeunerliebe", Zigeunerbaron", "Schwarzwaldmadel" television films. In France there were productions of "Elisir d'amore", and "Die Fledermaus", and Ponnelle/Barenboim's "Cosi fan Tutte".

    She sang the role of "Adele" in the famous Munich production of "Die Fledermaus" under Carlos Kleiber for television and videodisc.

  In concert, Janet Perry has an extended repertoire from early music: Bach, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, to Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler, Brückner, Poulenc, Faure. She has sung all the major Masses in her repertoire, and has recorded with Herbert v.Karajan Mozart's C-minor Mass, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and Brückner's Te Deum; with Kubelik Mozart's C-minor Mass for television, and Bach's "Kaffeekantate" and Monteverdi's 8th Madrigal Book with Nicolas Harnoncourt.

    She has sung recitals in France , Switzerland , Portugal, Italy, and in the US. She has produced a recital of her own creation - "A Salon in Paris, 1840" based on the music of composers living in Paris at the time, using costumes of the period, and amusing conversations with the pianist. Robert Fortune helped make the "mise-en scene".

    Most recently, Janet Perry has been effectuating a change of repertoire, adding roles of more lyric and dramatic quality: Donna Anna , Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) Countess and Rosalinde . She has been preparing Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, Antonia , and was chosen by Giorgio Strehler for his production in Milano's Piccolo Teatro of "Cosi fan Tutte" for the role of Despina, which played 3 seasons in Milan, and has toured all over Europe.

In the last years, she has also been dedicating more time to teaching voice to beginners as well as professionals. She has led Master Classes in Italy, Switzerland and the USA, and has been professor of voice in the Conservatoire of Sion in Switzerland.

    In addition to singing concerts in Switzerland and Italy, in the summer of 2001 she sings Micaela in a tour of Italian amphitheaters and is preparing the role of Liu in Turandot to sing in a stage/ tv production in Madrid.

Salzburg Festival, conductor Herbert von Karajan