Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan is an original, who moves freely between the multiple roles of conductor, singer and curator. Her work is driven by curiosity, passion, discipline, imagination and an unwavering belief in music as essential to life.

Over more than three decades, she has forged artistic partnerships with extraordinary musicians, directors and choreographers, including Romeo Castellucci, Claus Guth, Vladimir Jurowski, Katie Mitchell, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Petrenko, Sasha Waltz, and Krzysztof Warlikowski. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.

Hailed by The New York Times as “...a daring singer and maestro who has built a reputation for innovative programming,” Barbara Hannigan brings established masterpieces into dialogue with rarely heard works and the music of today, creating unexpected connections.

"A concert program is a story. It is a narrative that excites and engages the listener. What intrigues me, is that because everyone experiences music differently, each concertgoer will perceive the program's narrative in their own unique way, which will be different than what I imagined in putting the program together. And that's what is so exciting about live music and performance."  

The Canadian musician has premiered more than 120 new works, and transformed the way contemporary music is experienced by performers and audiences alike. She has collaborated extensively with composers including Hans Abrahamsen, George Benjamin, Boulez, Dutilleux, Ligeti and Stockhausen. Recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam's I am Not a Tale to be Told with Iceland and London Symphony Orchestras, Laura Bowler's The White Book, for soprano and orchestra, (with text from Nobel prize laureate Han Kang), which she premiered with Gothenburg Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, and Copenhagen Philharmonic. She created the title role of Agnes in George Benjamin's operatic masterpiece "Written on Skin", and gave the astonishing world premiere of Hans Abrahamsen's "let me tell you" with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which she then performed with orchestras worldwide. 

She is a frequent collaborator with American maverick John Zorn:  composer, saxophonist, visual artist, and improviser. Zorn has already written 8 works for her, which combine her voice and presence with classical musicians and jazz players of the highest calibre. 

In the 26/27 season, Hannigan begins her tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, where her spirit of discovery will shape an artistic vision rooted in excellence, openness and collaboration, while forging new connections between Iceland and the wider international music community.

Balancing her work as both conductor and soprano, Hannigan maintains long-standing relationships with her colleagues in the orchestral, operatic and chamber music realms. She has maintained multi-year associations with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (as Principal Guest Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (as Associate Artist), l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (as Principal Guest Conductor), and performs regularly with the Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. She will make her Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducting debut, performing as part of the joint project between the orchestra and Scapino Ballet entitled La Mer, in which she will sing, conduct and also  dance with the artists of this world-renowned dance company. She continues to tour her unique production of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine,after its most recent successes wth New York Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras,  bringing the work this season to Berlin with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Her recital tour with her most important musical partner, pianist Bertrand Chamayou (works by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn) continues in the 2026/27 season with performances throughout Europe. 

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). Six critically celebrated 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, MESSIAEN with pianist Bertrand Chamayou, Electric Fields with pianists Katia et Marielle Labeque, and An American Dream? featuring American composers including Copland and Gershwin, recorded with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.  Hannigan Sings Zorn, Volumes One and Two, live recordings of John Zorn’s compositions were released on the label Tzadik in 2024, and La Donna del Lago, a special project with Massimo Pupillo and David Chalmin was released in 2026.

Her awards and honours include the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (2026), the 2025 Polar Music Prize, 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), Gramophone Magazine’s 2022 Artist of the Year, Germany's Faust Award (2015), Sweden's Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts (2018), and Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2021). 

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.