London Symphony Orchestra names Barbara Hannigan as Associate Artist

On the eve of the second of three concerts at the Barbican 17, 23 and 24 February 2022 the LSO is delighted to announce that Barbara Hannigan is appointed LSO Associate Artist for a period of three years.

Associate Artist is a new role created by the LSO to sit alongside the LSO’s family of conductors. Associate Artists are musicians with distinct influences, quality and style that add diversity and richness to the LSO, creating their own programmes in collaboration with the Orchestra and contributing to the repertoire choices for other programmes throughout the Season.

Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra said:

‘Barbara Hannigan is a unique artist in her ability to combine conducting and singing, she is supremely gifted in both disciplines, and at the peak of her powers. Already in her performances with LSO over the last few years, she has introduced players and audiences to new works that lend themselves to her special talents. This exciting exploration of new repertoire is precisely what the LSO thrives on and the time is right to take this next step in our relationship with her. During her time as an LSO Associate Artist, Barbara will continue to create entertaining and stimulating concert programmes challenging how orchestral music is presented and played. The LSO also shares Barbara’s passion for supporting young artists and providing them with new opportunities.’

Barbara Hannigan comments, ‘I am thrilled to accept this appointment, developing and performing beautiful and fascinating programmes with my colleagues at the LSO. This collaboration gives me a lot of energy and inspiration.’

Barbara Hannigan will be resident for a number of LSO concerts in the Barbican during each year and undertake some international work including a European tour in March 2023. Audiences in London, online and on tour will be able to watch and hear how the collaboration develops and grows.

Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her artistic colleagues include Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, John Zorn, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, Kirill Petrenko and Krszysztof Warlikowski. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.

The Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 85 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen.

The 20/21 season presented both challenges and opportunities, and true to form, Barbara continued at her own speed of light, premiering a new live video production of La voix humaine in which she both sings and conducts, created in collaboration with video artist Denis Guéguin. She performed across Europe with colleagues including Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, festivals in Ludwigsburg and Aix en Provence, and celebrated her 50th birthday at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, conducting the Ludwig Orchestra in works of Haydn, Copland, Barry and two Kurt Weill songs arranged for Barbara by Bill Elliott.

The 21/22 season marked her return to La Monnaie as Lulu in the much-awaited remount of her first Lulu production with Warlikowski from 2012. Her La voix humaine production travels this season to London Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic. She also continues her position as Principal Guest Conductor with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and artist in residence with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as conducting programmes with Danish Symphony Orchestra Barbara is artist in residence of the 2022 Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto Festival). She will sing the world premiere of a new work by Zosha di Castri with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and present several concerts with vocal works by John Zorn in Antwerp, Hamburg and Modena.

Hannigan’s album as both singer and conductor, Crazy Girl Crazy (2017), won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album and numerous other awards including an Edison and a Juno. Other recent albums include Vienna: fin de siècle, and Satie’s Socrate, both with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw. In spring 2020, she released her latest album on Alpha Classics, La Passione with works of Nono, Haydn and Grisey. Three new cd recordings for the Alpha label are on the way to release.

Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiative Equilibrium Young Artists in 2017, and in 2020, Barbara created Momentum: our Future Now, an initiative which encourage other leading artists and organizations to support and mentor younger professional musicians. In spring 2020 Barbara was awarded the Dresdener Musikfestspiele Glashütte Award, and May 2021 saw her awarded Denmark’s prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize. The financial component of both awards was donated to young artists initiatives.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Barbara resides in Paris and Finistère, France.