Barbara Hannigan performs as both soprano and conductor, concentrating on avant-garde opera and vocal repertoire. She has introduced more than 85 contemporary pieces through partnerships with leading living composers and maintains an active role as mentor by establishing two separate programs to assist emerging artists.
Born on May 8, 1971, in Waverly, Nova Scotia, Canada, Hannigan began her musical studies in her home province before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1993 and a master’s degree from the same institution in 1998. Additional training took place at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Orford Arts Centre, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where her instructors were Meinard Kraak and Neil Semer.
She has given first performances of works by Henri Dutilleux, Louis Andriessen, and George Benjamin, among numerous others. Hannigan has both sung and led György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and remains particularly recognized for her portrayals of the title role in Alban Berg’s Lulu and of Marie in Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. Engagements as vocalist and conductor have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra, while her recordings have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, Accentus, and Bel Air Classiques.
Documentary profiles of her work include the 2014 film I’m a Creative Animal, and she received appointment to the Order of Canada in 2016. In 2017 she launched the Equilibrium Young Artists initiative. That same year Alpha Classics issued her first recording serving simultaneously as vocalist and conductor, Crazy Girl Crazy, which received the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. She took part in the 2019 Nimbus recording George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence, nominated for a Grammy in the Best Opera Recording category. In 2020 she sang and conducted the Ludwig Orchestra on the Alpha album La Passione, which presents music by Haydn, Luigi Nono, and Gérard Grisey. Also in 2020 she founded Momentum: Our Future Now to furnish professional guidance for young musicians. Denmark awarded her the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 2021, and in 2022 the London Symphony Orchestra named Hannigan its inaugural LSO Associate Artist.
