BarbaraHannigan
Early musical experiences
Barbara Hannigan was born in 1971 in Waverley, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was brought up in a family where music was important and omnipresent. She sang in choirs and took piano lessons at an early age.
Barbara Hannigan also mentions one particular music teacher as being an early inspiration, a part from home. The teacher would let the children listen to Beethoven's 5th and have them drawing what they were hearing – "I still think of music in that way", Hannigan says.
Music from Barbara's childhood
"My mother always sang with us as children and, living in the country, we spent a lot of time in the car to get anywhere, so singing in the car, in harmony, was normal, whether it was singing along to John Denver or Jim Croce, Billy Joel or Pavarotti tapes …"
– Barbara Hannigan, "Fifteen" Questions interview, 2025
Musical studies
Barbara Hannigan began studying music at the University of Toronto at 17, and pursued an education as a singer with the renowned Canadian teacher and soprano Mary Morrison. She then continued her education at the Banff Centre and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, NL, with Reinbert de Leeuw who would become her life long mentor.
Reinbert de Leeuw and Barbara Hannigan.
“Mary makes sure that all her students respect the composers of our time, but with me it was clearly a passion that needed attention."
Barbara Hannigan on her teacher Mary Morrison at the University of Toronto (Source: U of T's alumni page)
The Soprano
Barbara Hannigan made her singing début at the age of 19, already committed to new music and contemporary composers. Her first professional premiere would be a contemporary piece by Canadian Henry Brant.
Hannigan, Boulez & The Berliner Philharmoniker performing Stravinsky, Le Rossignol
Some of the key roles that Hannigan often refers to are Alban Berg's "Lulu", an opera composed with the twelve tone technique, Isabel in George Benjamin's "Lessons in Love and Violence", premiered in 2018 in London, and Elle in Francis Poulenc's "La Voix Humaine." She has also done her own production of "La Voix Humaine", both singing and conducting.
Other major pieces performed by Hannigan are Ligeti's "Mysteries of the Macabre", Hans Abrahamsen's "Let me tell you", that she premiered in 2013, and Dutilleux' "Correspondances".
Polar Music Prize official playlist
Lulu at the Staatsoper in Hamburg. (Source: Photo by Monika Rittershaus)
Recording and performing
Barbara Hannigans debut solo recording was released in 2017: Crazy Girl Crazy. The album won a Grammy Award in 2018 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Barbara Hannigan is also famous for her theatrical and boundary breaking performances, often thinking outside of the box of classic recitals and performances.
Crazy Girl Crazy, 2017
"I was even more drawn to contemporary music once I realized that other singers were not lining up to sing this repertoire, that I was an anomaly."
– Barbara Hannigan in the Washington Post, 2024
The conductor
In 2011, Barbara Hannigan took on conducting, a career choice that hadn’t crossed her mind when she was young because she had never seen a woman conduct an orchestra, she told The New York Times.
She made her conducting debut in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet, singing and leading Ligeti’s "Mysteries of the Macabre."
In the studio (Source: Photo by Annelies Van der Vegt)
Barbara Hannigan has been conducting world class orchestras including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Cleveland Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Rome's Accademmia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Göteborgs Symfoniker, to name a few. In 2026 she will become the chief conductor and artistic director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
She has also crated her own conducting trademark, singing and conducting at the same time. Her own presentation of Cocteau and Poulenc's "La Voix humaine" both singing and conducting and interacting with live video cameras in order to face the orchestra and communicate with the audience at the same time. This tour de force was revolutionary when it premiered in 2021 with l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
Barbara Hannigan relating the story on how her performance of "La Voix Humaine" started.
“I felt the call. I knew that I would dedicate a large part of my musical life and voice to contemporary music because I should, because it was an obligation. And an obligation because of passion. The two were hand in hand. ”
– Barbara Hannigan, The Washington Post, 2024
A true commitment
Barbara Hannigan has premiered about one hundred new works, collaborating with many notable contemporary composers so diverse such as freejazz musician John Zorn and Polar Music Prize Laureates Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
She noticed early in her career that contemporary composers weren’t programmed as much, and being interested in their experimentations with sounds and harmony she commited to working almost exclusively with contemporary music.
John Zorn has written six pieces for Hannigan. They have also worked together on “Jumalattaret”, John Zorn's depiction of Finnish goddesses and Sámi folklore from Sápmi, Scandinavia. The music leaps between folkloric echoes, whispers and growls, virtuosic runs and high-flying sustains.
Collaborations
Working with living composers enables the music to be adapted and changed to suit its interpreters, in collaboration with the performing artist, Hannigan explains.
As a singer and conductor, Barbara always seeks new artistic fields. The project Electric Fields is an example, shining light on ancient music but interpreted in a contemporary way. This is an immersive experience with composers Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin and pianists Katia and Marielle Labèquere casting music by Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini into new compositions for soprano, two pianos and live electronics.
Podcast interview on "Electric Fields"
"My aim is to lead through example."
– Barbara Hannigan on the aims of Equilibrium Young Artists
Equilibrium Young Artists
Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists in 2017, offering both guidance and performing opportunities to young professional artists.
"What I can do, is bring young artists into my performance realm, to invite them to share the stage with me, and to learn alongside me. We will be working as colleagues", she states on the project's website.
Equilibrium Young Artists at the Ojai Festival in 2019.
Momentum, our future, now
Barbara has also founded "Momentum", a growing collective of leading solo artists in the beginning of their careers. A collaborative and "pay-it-forward" project where leading singers, conductors and musicians commit to supporting young artists in the beginning of their careers.
Concert with Barbara Hannigan and Equilibrium Young Artists.
This article was published in 2025. Header photo by Marco Borggreve. Sources: Official biography, allmusic.com, articles in the Washington Post, KLM Holland Herald, The New York Times, "Fifteen" Questions, Youtube.
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Marie Ledin Managing Director marie.ledin@polarmusicprize.org
Alfons Karabuda Chairman of the Polar Music Prize Award Committee alfons@polarmusicprize.org
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