Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Over more than three decades, she has forged extraordinary artistic partnerships with the world’s foremost musicians, composers, directors and choreographers, including Bertrand Chamayou, John Zorn, Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Petrenko, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Andreas Kriegenburg, Sasha Waltz, Chrisoph Marthaler and Katie Mitchell. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician. 

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, Dutilleux, Ligeti, di Castri, Stockhausen, Khayam, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen.  

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. Balancing her work as both conductor and soprano, Hannigan maintains long-standing relationships with orchestras including Gothenburg Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and regularly appears with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.  

One of Hannigan’s signature roles is Elle in Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine. Having performed the role in a production by Krszysztof Warlikowski and Claus Guth, she also created her own production in which she both sings and conducts from the podium, interacting with live video cameras. The acclaimed production had its premiere with l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and has toured to various orchestras and halls including Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London, Rotterdam, Reykjavik, Montreal, and Munich. In the 2025/26 season she brings it to new audiences with her conducting debuts at the New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, as well as performances in Istanbul with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.  

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. In 2025/26 season, she premieres The White Book (with text by Nobel laureate Han Kang), composed by Laura Bowler, co-commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony and Copenhagen Philharmonic. 

Her ongoing artistic partnership with pianist Bertrand Chamayou continues with recitals (works by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn)​ continues, with performances in Lausanne, Amsterdam, Goteborg, Brussels, Madrid, Vienna, Prague and London (Wigmore Hall debut) as well as orchestral engagements with the acclaimed French musician, and she embarks on another European tour alongside the Belcea String Quartet. 

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 featuring works of Olivier Messiaen with pianist Bertrand Chamayou and Electric Fields with pianists Katia et Marielle Labeque ,around 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 August 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, "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, Dresdener 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.