Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. More than 30 years since her professional debut, Hannigan has had the honour to create magical working relationships with world class musicians, directors, and choreographers, for audience worldwide. Her artistic colleagues include John Zorn, Krszysztof Warlikowski, Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, and Kirill Petrenko. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.

The Grammy Award winning Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of nearly 100 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, di Castri, Stockhausen, Khayam, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin, and Abrahamsen.

A passionate musician of unique and courageous choices, Hannigan is renowned for creating innovative orchestral programs, combining new and older repertoire in a highly dramatic and authentic manner. Having begun her career as a soprano, tackling some of the most difficult and virtuoso roles in the repertoire, she then turned her hand to conducting, with her debut at age 40 at the Chatelet in Paris, and, more than 10

years on, balances her engagements as singer or conductor on a free and original path. In recent years she has been conducting world class orchestras including the Concertgebouw and Cleveland Orchestras, Montreal Symphony, Rome's Accademmia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, has ongoing relationships with festivals including Aix en Provence and Spoleto, and has had starring soprano roles on opera stages including London's Covent Garden, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Paris Opera's Palais Garnier, New York's Lincoln Center, and the opera houses of Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich.

The past few seasons have brought a new presentation of Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine, in which she both sings and conducts from the podium, interacting with live video cameras. The acclaimed production had its premiere with l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and has toured to various orchestras and halls including Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London, Rotterdam, Reykjavik, Montreal, and Munich. Recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam's I am not a tale to be told with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, John Zorn's Split the Lark and Star Catcher, Zosha di Castri's In the Half Light with the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras, new works by Sandström and Sciarrino, and a project with pianists Katia et Marielle Labeque inspired by the life and music of Hildegard von Bingen with new music from David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner.

The 24/25 season brings return conducting engagements to Gothenburg Symphony, London Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and Kollegium Musicum WInterthur, a vocal recital tour with Bertrand Chamayou (works by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn), a music theatre production with

director Romeo Castelluci at the Cathedral of Geneva (works by Pergolesi and Scelsi), as well as masterclasses throughout Europe and North America. She holds several principal guest and associate artist positions, and in 2026 will take the helm of Iceland Symphony Orchestra as their chief conductor and artistic director.

As an acclaimed recording artist, Barbara Hannigan’s fruitful relationship with Alpha Classics began in 2017 with the release of Crazy Girl Crazy, which won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album, as well as an Edison (The Netherlands) and a Juno (Canada). Six critically acclaimed recordings followed, including Vienna: fin de siècle with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, La Passione featuring works by Nono, Haydn and Grisey, Infinite Voyage, joining her colleagues of the Emerson String Quartet for their final album, in works of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Berg and Chausson, and MESSIAEN featuring works of Olivier Messiaen with pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Hannigan Sings Zorn Volume One, a live recording of John Zorn’s compositions with pianist Stephen Gosling was released on the label Tzadik in August 2024. Hannigan is also featured on many other recordings and DVDs, including Abrahamsen's let me tell you with the Bayerischen Rundfunk Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons and an album of vocal works of Satie with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw (both on the Winter and Winter label), works by Ligeti and Berg with London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, Unsuk Chin's Le silence des sirènes with the Berlin Philharmonic and Rattle, and several operas including George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Poulenc's La Voix Humaine and the title role in the iconic Warlikowski production of Berg's Lulu.

Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists (2017), and Momentum: our Future Now (2020), both initiatives offering both guidance and performing opportunities to young professional artists. She was recently named the Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at London's Royal Academy of Music and has been visiting professor at the Juilliard School in New York. Her recent album of chamber works by Stravinsky in collaboration with young musicians of the Royal Academy and Juilliard will be released in autumn 2024 on the Linn label. Her awards and honours include the Order of Canada (2016), Officier des Arts et des Lettres in France (2022), and Gramophone Magazine’s 2022 Artist of the Year, Germany's Faust Award (2015), Sweden's Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts (2018) and the 2021 Stena Foundation's Cultural Scholarship, Dresdener Musikfestspiele Glashütte Award (2020), Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2021), and Canada's De Hueck and Walford Career Achievement Award (2023).

Barbara resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France, looking over an inlet which leads directly across the Atlantic to where she grew up in Waverley, Nova Scotia.

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