A native of Lisbon, Joana Carneiro began her musical studies as a violist before receiving her conducting degree from the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, where she studied with Jean-Marc Burfin. She then travelled to the United States, where she obtained her Masters degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University as a student of Victor Yampolsky and Mallory Thompson. She pursued doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler. She was a finalist of the prestigious 2002 Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition at Carnegie Hall. In 2003 and 2004, she worked with maestros Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnanyi and conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2002 to 2005, she served as Assistant Conductor of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra and as Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles.

From 2005 to 2008, she was an American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she worked closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen and led several performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Joana Carneiro is the 2010 recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award, conferred by the League of American Orchestras. In 2004, she was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Mr. Jorge Sampaio, with the Commendation of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique. From 2006 to 2018, Joana Carneiro was the official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

From 2009 to 2018 she was Music Director of Berkeley Symphony, succeeding Kent Nagano. Joana Carneiro was Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa at Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon from 2014 until January 2022. Last season she conducted the world stage premiere of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars. 

With Scottish Opera she conducted Nixon in China and, in Lisbon, The&nbsp;Rake´s Progress. Other recent opera performances include A Wonderful Town (Royal Danish Opera), Simone’s La Passion (Ojai Festival), Oedipus Rex (Sydney, Helpmann Award for Best Concert by the Symphony Orchestra) and A Flowering Tree (Vienna, Paris, Chicago, Cincinnati, Gothenburg, Lisbon). Joana Carneiro has conducted prominent orchestras around the world: BBC Symphony and Philharmonia in London, BBC Scottish and Scottish Chamber, National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Royal Stockholm, Gothenburg, Finnish Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Castilla y Leon, and La Venice in Europe.Joana Carneiro is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Artistic Director of the Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra, a post she has held since 2013.