Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, fresh off recital appearances in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria, has just been named 2025 Artist of the Year by Musical America.
With its first print issue in 1898, Musical America is North America’s oldest music-industry magazine. Awarded since 1961, the first three Artist of the Year honorees were Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price and Igor Stravinsky, and the list of prior laureates includes such operatic luminaries as Jessye Norman, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and, in 2024, Lise Davidsen.
Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is at the forefront of creation. More than 30 years since her professional debut, Hannigan has had the honour to create magical working relationships with world class musicians, directors and choreographers, for audiences worldwide. A passionate musician of unique and courageous choices, Hannigan is renowned for creating innovative orchestral programs, combining new and older repertoire in a highly dramatic and authentic manner.
Hannigan’s recent seasons have brought a new presentation of Poulenc’s opera La voix humaine, 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 Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London, Rotterdam, Reykjavik, Montreal and Munich. She was recently named as the new chief conductor and artistic director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, a role that will begin in 2026.
Regarding Hannigan’s work, Musical America writes “As an internationally acclaimed soprano, Barbara Hannigan is justly famous for championing cutting-edge composers from György Ligeti to George Benjamin. Raised on choral singing and her father’s Billy Joel and Pavarotti cassettes in Nova Scotia, she established herself early on as an artist of ferocious curiosity. These days, however, she’s more often to be found on the podium, pushing new boundaries as a thought-provoking conductor.”
Of her transition from singer to conductor, Hannigan says in her video interview with Musical America that “when I’m now ‘just’ a conductor, certainly everything comes from the breath. So, as I’m a ‘professional breather,’ this is very helpful for the orchestra. And then thinking about that singing line – and I do really try to have every line in my head as a singing line and often I’m demonstrating to the orchestra as we’re working – to keep that primal kind of sound.”
Opera Canada is proud to offer our congratulations to Hannigan on this well-deserved honour.
Watch Barbara Hannigan’s interview with Musical America:
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