Barbara Hannigan

Barbara Hannigan is a soprano and conductor who specializes in avant-garde opera and vocal music. She has premiered over 85 new works, collaborating with many notable contemporary composers. She is also an advocate and mentor for young musicians, creating two initiatives as a means to provide support.
Hannigan was born on May 8, 1971, in Waverly, Nova Scotia, Canada, where she began her training. She studied at the University of Toronto, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1993 and her master’s degree in 1998. Hannigan also studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Orford Arts Centre, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Her teachers included Meinard Kraak and Neil Semer. She has premiered many contemporary works, including pieces by Henri Dutilleux, Louis Andriessen, and George Benjamin, among many others. Hannigan has sung and conducted performances of György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, and is especially noted for her performances as the title character in Alban Berg’s Lulu and as Marie in Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. She has appeared as a vocalist and conductor with numerous ensembles, such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. She has recorded for several labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, Accentus, and Bel Air Classiques.
Hannigan has been the subject of several documentaries, including I’m a Creative Animal in 2014, and she was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2016. Committed to providing mentorship to younger musicians, Hannigan created the Equilibrium Young Artists initiative in 2017. That year, she made her debut recording as both vocalist and conductor with Crazy Girl Crazy on Alpha Classics, which won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. In 2019, she was featured in the Nimbus release George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording. Hannigan sang and conducted the Ludwig Orchestra on the 2020 Alpha album La Passione, featuring works by Haydn, Luigi Nono, and Gérard Grisey. That year, Hannigan created Momentum: Our Future Now, a support and mentorship initiative for young professional musicians. In 2021, she was awarded Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize, and the following year, the London Symphony Orchestra appointed Hannigan its first-ever LSO Associate Artist. ~ Blair Sanderson & Keith Finke