Balancing her work as both conductor and soprano, Hannigan maintains long-standing relationships with her colleagues in the orchestral, operatic and chamber music realms. The Grammy and Juno Award winning Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world premiere performances of nearly 100 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Benjamin, Abrahamsen, Dutilleux, Ligeti, di Castri, Stockhausen, Khayam, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin and Dean. Recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam's I am Not a Tale to be Told with Iceland and London Symphony Orchestras, John Zorn's Split the Lark and Star Catcher, and Zosha di Castri's In the Half Light with the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras. This season she will give the world premiere of Laura Bowler's The White Book, for soprano and orchestra, (with text from Nobel prize laureate Han Kang), with Gothenburg Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, and Copenhagen Philharmonic, conducted by Bar Avni.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a daring singer and maestro who has built a reputation for innovative programming,” Hannigan combines new and older repertoire in a highly dramatic and authentic manner. She was recently music director and soloist for Romeo Castellucci's highly acclaimed Stabat Mater, which combined works by Scelsi and Pergolesi for a stunning series of sold-out performances at Geneva's Cathedrale St Pierre.
Hannigan's signature operatic roles include Lulu (productions directed by Warlikowski and Marthaler), Melisande (productions directed by Warlikowski and Mitchell) Marie in Die Soldaten (directed by Kriegenburg), Agnes in Written on Skin (directed by Mitchell), and La Voix Humaine (productions directed by Warlikowski, Guth and her own production with live video).
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). Five 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, MESSIAEN with pianist Bertrand Chamayou and Electric Fields with pianists Katia et Marielle Labeque, inspired by the life and music of Hildegard von Bingen with new compositions from David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner. Hannigan Sings Zorn, Volumes One and Two, live recordings of John Zorn’s compositions were released on the label Tzadik in 2024.
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 guidance and performing opportunities to young professional artists. She continues her work with emerging artists through masterclasses and her roles as Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Creative Associate at the Juilliard School.
Her awards and honours include being the 2025 Polar Music Prize Laureate, 2025 Musical America Artist of the Year, "Accademico Onorario (Honorary Academician) (2025) at Accademia di Santa Cecilia, 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, Dresdner 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.
