Brought up in Cardiff, Iona is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Goldsmiths' College University of London, she also holds an LRAM Diploma for the teaching of singing.   

A founder member and current tutor of the National Youth Choir of Wales she also tutors with the Cardiff County and the Vale of Glamorgan Youth and High Schools Choirs, and is a singing tutor at University of Wales, Newport, and Cardiff University.

She is busy both on the concert platform and as an oratorio performer and has toured to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Brussels, Malta, USSR, Hungary, Prague, USA, Canada, Barbados and Vienna, appearing at such prestigious venues as the Sydney Opera House and New York's Carnegie Hall.

In August 2000, at the Llanelli National Eisteddfod, Iona culminated her competitive career by winning the prestigious David Ellis Memorial Prize - The Blue Riband.

Iona is frequently called upon to perform 20th century Welsh music, indeed she sang in a recital at the Gregynog Festival 2006 with Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, piano, and Sara Trickey, violin, commemorating Grace Williams' centenary.