Joseph Evans (born 13 August 1945) is an American tenor, stage director, and music educator. Trained at the University of North Texas, Evans made his professional opera debut with the Fort Worth Opera in December 1966 in the world premiere of Julia Smith's The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. In his early career he worked as a music teacher in Dallas and Houston while working part time as a performer. With the encouragement and support of Sarah Caldwell he pursued a full time singing career. He was a principal tenor in Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston from 1974 to 1988.
While singing in Boston, Evans was concurrently a regular performer with the San Diego Opera and the New York City Opera during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beginning in the mid-1980s his career expanded onto the international stage. Companies he has performed leading roles with include La Scala, La Fenice, the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Washington National Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. He has created roles in the world premieres of operas by André Bon, Daniel Catán, Carlisle Floyd, Jake Heggie, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Richard Wargo, and has performed in the United States premieres of operas by composers Mikhail Glinka, Roger Sessions, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann.
In addition to his work in opera, Evans has performed in the concert repertoire with orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He taught voice on the faculty of the University of Miami before becoming a professor of voice at the University of Houston (UH) in 1998. As of 2024, he remains the C.W. Moores Jr. Endowed Professor of Music at the UH.