Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2019

RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE 9 PROGRAM FOR SINGERS 1999 Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan has taken the classical music world by storm with her vocal skill, dramatic sensibility, and unique ability to do both activities at once. She has garnered rave reviews for concerts where she conducts an orchestra and sings simultaneously, entertaining audiences and enchanting critics alike. As an interpreter and champion of contemporary music, Hannigan has given the world premiere performances of over 85 new classical works, and the 2018-2019 season has only seen her success magnify. Hannigan released her sophomore recital album “Vienna: Fin de Siècle” in late 2018 with longtime collaborator and mentor, Dutch pianist Reinbert de Leeuw. Focusing on “Vienna at the height of late Romanticism, when music was at its most lush and decadent,” the album won a 2019 JUNO award for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral. Hannigan was awarded the 2020 Léonie Sonning Music Prize this past February—Denmark’s highest classical musical honor—making her only the eighth singer and 16th conductor to receive the prestigious prize. While Hannigan’s award will be presented at a concert next April where she will perform as soprano and conductor with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, it will not be her first time participating in a Léonie Sonning Music Prize presentation. In the concert celebrating 2019 prize winner, composer Hans Abrahamsen, Hannigan joined the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for his iconic work “let me tell you,” which she has championed and performed internationally. In addition to individual performances with international orchestras and symphonies, Hannigan will hold several residencies in 2019. She was featured in the New York Times for her upcoming residency at the Park Avenue Armory, where she has organized two programs featuring the New York premiere of John Zorn’s “Jumalatteret,”and Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 with the Emerson String Quartet. Over several weeks in June, Hannigan also served as artist in residence, co-curator and featured performer for the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, England. She played to her many strengths, acting as singer, conductor, narrator, recitalist and mentor to singers from her newly-formed young artist program. This season saw the launch of her groundbreaking mentorship scheme, Equilibrium Young Artists. Focusing on young musicians who are finished with their training and in the first substantial phase of their professional career, Equilibrium aims to help these young artists further their professional development by elevating their total musicianship and discipline, and offering projects with leading orchestras and ensembles. With over twenty performances with four partner orchestras, Equilibrium’s first season will also see Hannigan conduct her first opera, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. RSMI ALUMNI NEWS Spotlight: Barbara Hannigan Barbara Hannigan captures audiences by conducting and singing. MUSACCHIO AND LANNIELLO