Barbara Hannigan

Education

Hannigan's initial musical education came from the music teachers in her hometown of Waverley, Nova Scotia in Halifax.

After growing up in Waverley, Hannigan moved to Toronto at the age of 17. She studied music at the University of Toronto, where her teachers included Mary Morrison. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1993 and a Master of Music degree in 1998. She continued her studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, and the Centre d'arts Orford. She also studied for one year at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where her teachers included Meinard Kraak. Other teachers have included Neil Semer.

Career

Hannigan is particularly renowned for her performances of contemporary music. Her advocacy of contemporary music began in her youth, and she sang her first world premiere at the age of 17. As of 2011, she has premiered approximately 75 contemporary compositions. These include One by Michel van der Aa (2002), the song cycle Auf der Suche nach meinem Gesicht by Friedrich Cerha (2007), and La plus forte by Gerald Barry (2007), which the composer wrote specifically for Hannigan. Hans Abrahamsen wrote the symphonic song cycle let me tell you for Hannigan.

She is particularly noted for her performances of György Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre (a concert version of a scene from his opera Le Grand Macabre), and in 2011, she began to conduct the work in addition to singing the vocal part. Her work in contemporary opera has included singing in the premieres of Louis Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer, Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Importance of Being Earnest, Jan van de Putte's Wet Snow, Kris Defoort's House of the Sleeping Beauties, and George Benjamin's Written on Skin. She has worked with choreographer Sasha Waltz on productions of Toshio Hosokawa's Matsukaze and Pascal Dusapin's Passion. Hannigan received critical acclaim for her performance in Alban Berg's Lulu, which included dancing on pointe. In 2014, Hannigan sang the role of Marie in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten at the Bavarian State Opera, a production that was streamed live on the internet.

Hannigan regularly performs in concert as both soprano and conductor. She has worked with the Göteborgs Symphoniker, Prague Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Britten Sinfonia and Gulbenkian Orchestra. She won the Ovatie 2014 award for her performance as soprano/conductor with her conducting debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Ludwig Orchestra.

In 2016, Hannigan was made a Member of the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest civilian honours.

Selected discography

Her commercial recordings in contemporary music include the premiere recording of Henri Dutilleux's Correspondances (Deutsche Grammophon) and Louis Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer (Nonesuch), music of Luca Francesconi (Kairos) and of Harry Freedman (Centrediscs). She is also featured on four Naxos recordings of vocal works of George Frideric Handel, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Gideon, Rinaldo, and Tobit.

In 2014 two DVDs were released: Alban Berg's Lulu (Bel Air Classiques) and George Benjamin's Written on Skin. Written on Skin received the Gramophone Award 2014 in the category "Contemporary".

Personal

Hannigan's ex-husband is the Dutch theatre director Gijs de Lange.