Multi-hyphenate artist Barbara Hannigan has been named the winner of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award in the category of Classical Singing. The award includes a $50,000 prize.
Hannigan commented on the award in a statement. “I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to be awarded the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award. My musical formation is so deeply connected with Canada, having begun my formative studies in Nova Scotia, and continuing i 1989 at the University of Toronto with Mary Morrison. I made my professional debut in 1991 with Toronto’s New Music Concerts and have had an ongoing relationship with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2001, both as singer and conductor. I am deeply aware of the values which were instilled in me from an early age through excellent teachers and mentors, both in Canada and abroad. It is my goal to pass forward the kindness and generosity I have received, to help others experience the joy and enrichment that music brings to the world.”
Barbara Hannigan
Barbara Hannigan is a rare artist who is carving out a career simultaneously as a soprano and a conductor. The graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music has made her mark in the world of classical music, and garnered a few other awards along the way.
- Named to the Order of Canada in 2016;
- Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2018 for the album Crazy Girl Crazy:
- Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Vocal or Choral Performance in both 2019 for Vienna: Fin de Siècle, and 2018 for Crazy Girl Crazy;
- Also in 2018, received Sweden’s Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts;
- In 2022, received both received France’s Officier des Arts et des Lettres distinction and was named Gramophone Magazine’s 2022 Artist of the Year.
Along with her own artistic creation, including live performance and recording projects, Barbara strongly supports the next generation of musicians, and she’s created two initiatives that foster mentorship, Equilibrium Young Artists (2017), and in 2020, Momentum: our Future Now. The latter encourages established artists and organizations to mentor younger musicians. When she was awarded the Dresdener Musikfestspiele Glashütte Award in 2020, and in 2021, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in Denmark, she donated the financial part of both awards to organizations for younger artists.
Hannigan is known for her equal appreciation of baroque and new music, with an ongoing mission to support contemporary music. She has performed the world premières of more than 85 new works, and has collaborated with Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, and a range of other prominent composers.
That has included Canadian composers and their works, such as James Rolfe, Omar Daniel, John Beckwith, Harry Somers, Harry Freedman, and Ana Sokolovic. She is in the process of a conducting/recording project with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France involving the work of Claude Vivier for the Alpha Classics label.
She has also included the work of Vivier in her European concerts, including those with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, along with European tours with London Symphony Orchestra and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 2022, she premiered Canadian composer Zosha di Castri’s piece In the Half Light with the TSO. Next season, she’ll bring the piece to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
- Currently Principal Guest Conductor with Gothenburg Symphony
- “Première artiste invitée” with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France;
- Associate Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra.
The Nova Scotia native is currently living in northwest France, in Finistère.
The prize
Barbara Hannigan was the unanimous choice of a jury made up of opera singer and theatre creator Rebecca Cuddy (Toronto); opera coach, collaborative pianist, and pianist Valerie Dueck (Ottawa); and established opera singer, and 2003 Paul de Hueck Walford and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award laureate Judith Forst (Port Moody, BC).
The jury issued a statement about their choice. “Barbara Hannigan is fearless. She is a wonderful musician, a great theatrical mind, and inspires many artists. Her interpretation of new and classical music is dynamic and energetic, welcoming neophyte and veteran audiences. Barbara’s international engagements are plentiful, and her discography is exceptional, helping to make her work accessible to all.”
Established at the Ontario Arts Foundation by the late Norman Walford, former Executive Director of the Ontario Arts Council, and the late Paul de Hueck, former CBC television production manager, the Award is given out in alternating years. For each iteration, it recognizes a classical or jazz keyboard player, an art photographer, and a classical singer. Previous honourees have included bass-baritone Gerald Finley (2018), soprano Adrianne Pieczonka (2014), and mezzo-soprano Judith Forst (2003).
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