Principal Guest Conductor of Göteborgs Symfoniker (2019 - present)

Associate Artist of London Symphony Orchestra (2022 - present)

Principal Guest Conductor of Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (2024 - present)

Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Iceland Symphony Orchestra (from August 2026)

Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at Royal Academy of Music London (2023 - present)

Juilliard Creative Associate (2025 - 2026)

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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, directors and choreographers, including Bertrand Chamayou, John Zorn, Romeo Castellucci, Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Claus Guth, Kent Nagano, Christoph Marthaler, Katie Mitchell, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Petrenko, Krzysztof Warlikowski, and Andreas Kriegenburg. 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, 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.

Balancing her work as both conductor and soprano, Hannigan maintains long-standing relationships with her colleagues in the orchestral, operatic and chamber music realms. In the 25/26 season, Barbara returns to the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (as Principal Guest Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (as Associate Artist), l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (as Principal Guest Conductor), and Iceland Symphony (where her position as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director will begin in 2026/27 season). She also returns to the Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Juilliard School (as Creative Associate). She will make her New York Philharmonic conducting debut, performing her unique version of Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine, in which she both sings the role of Elle and conducts the orchestra. She will bring this acclaimed production also to La Scala in Milan, to the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra in Istanbul, and to the Czech Philharmonic, as part of her residency at the Prague Spring Festival. Her recital tour with Bertrand Chamayou (works by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn) continues in the 2025/26 season, with performance dates in Lausanne, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Brussels, Madrid, Vienna, Prague and London (Wigmore Hall debut) and she embarks on another European tour alongside the Quatuor Belcea singing the soprano part in Schoenberg's String Quartet No 2.

Hannigan's signature operatic roles include Lulu (productions directed by Warlikowski and Marthaler), (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, 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.

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