Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan studied at the University of Toronto with Mary Morrison, at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Meinard Kraak, and privately with Neil Semer. Other studies took place at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia, the Centre d’arts Orford.
A frequent guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, she has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Bayerischen Rundfunk, Cleveland Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, l'’Orchestre National de France, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Paris Opera, Netherlands Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and the AskoSchoenberg Ensemble, among others.
She has received much acclaim for her performances of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a tour de force for soprano and orchestra which she has sung at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Lincoln Center in New York, the Berlin Philharmonie, Los Angeles Walt Disney Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna's Konzerthaus, and across Europe and North America. She has also performed the other major vocal works of Ligeti, making her BBC Proms debut in 2003 with Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Eötvös, with further performances at Lincoln Center in New York, and Ligeti’s Requiem with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jonathan Nott at the Salzburg Festival, with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Peter Eotvos, and with the Bayerischen Rundfunk conducted by Esa Pakka Salonen. She made her debut at La Monnaie in 2009 with Gepopo and Venus in the new La Fura dels Baus production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, and sang Gepopo in the recent New York Philharmonic production at Lincoln Center directed by Dougas Fitch.
She has worked with conductors including Reinbert de Leeuw, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Thomas Ades, Kurt Masur, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Ingo Metzmacher, Alan Gilbert, Susanna Malkki, Peter Oundjian, Oliver Knussen, Jonathan Nott, Peter Rundel, Michael Gielen and Peter Eötvös, has been on tour for several years with Maurizio Pollini’s Progetto Pollini, singing the works of Luigi Nono (most recently at La Scala), and has had the privilege of working with composers including György Ligeti, Louis Andriessen, Pascal Dusapin, Gerald Barry, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Peter Eotvos, Oliver Knussen and Henri Dutilleux.
Recent and upcoming engagements include Mysteries of the Macabre and the title role in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with the Berlin Philharmonic, the title role in Hosokawa's new opera Matsukaze at La Monnaie, directed by Sasha Waltz, a return to Aix en Provence for the new opera of George Benjamin directed by Luc Bondy, her debuts at Covent Garden and Barcelona's Teatro Liceu, and a European tour of Boulez' Pli selon pli with Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez. She will sing her first Lulu at La Monnaie in 2012, in a new production directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. In 2013 she will be singing the worldpremiere of a new work by Hans Abrahamson for soprano and orchestra with the Berlin Philharmonic. Besides her activities in concert and opera, Hannigan presents lied recitals with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.