For the Very First Time. An Interview with Barbara Hannigan

Barbara Hannigan, when was the last time you did something for the first time?

(laughs) I hope this doesn’t sound boring, but of course it’s to do with music. Last week I sang a world premiere. I gave my first one when I was 17, and there must have been hundreds since then. Then as now, this is very exciting for me. Of course I want people to enjoy the work, but above all, I want the composers to be happy, because it is a great honour for me to take on this role. Doing something for the very first time, and the whole process that goes with it, is very special. And it’s interesting to see what it brings out in me now compared to when I was younger and it was all completely new for me.

How do you feel about being the first person to do something?

I don’t think it makes me nervous. It’s more like a feeling of freedom, because I’m not being asked to follow in someone else’s footsteps. And there is no preconceived idea of what a piece should be like. That really liberated me and helped me find my own way. Composers are like kinds of singing teachers for me: They give me a huge bunch of different keys and I have to find out which doors they open. That’s a lifetime’s work.

You are the only artist I have seen sing and conduct at the same time …

It is indeed very rare, especially in my contemporary repertoire. And singing and conducting together only works well with certain pieces. That’s not so much to do with how difficult a piece is as with its message. As a singer, I tell a story. Does it make sense for me to assume some form of leadership in this role? I’m very careful when taking this decision and always have a dramaturgical reason for doing both together.

Isn’t that incredibly difficult? Why do you take on this dual role?

(laughs) I’ve often been asked whether it isn’t enough to just sing or just conduct. But that’s not the point. Taking up conducting came more from the inside for me: There was something inside me that wanted to be explored. I love singing, practising and learning, and conducting has definitely deepened my relationship with music. As a conductor, I have more responsibility and a greater scope for deciding how I interpret a piece. Besides, as a singer, I would literally never get my hands on the whole symphonic repertoire, which I love. Being both allows me to delve even deeper into the music.

What’s the first thing you do when you arrive at a new venue?

First of all, I make myself at home in my dressing room: I hang up my clothes, unpack my shoes, my music, my teacup and my honey. I like to organise the room as if it were my little home for the next few hours. Whether I’m giving an opera or a concert, that’s important to me and maybe has something to do with the amount of travelling I’ve done since leaving home at the age of 17. I need my little corner that’s mine alone, no matter for how long. Only then do I go on stage. And to be honest, I don’t pay that much attention to the acoustics.

Really?

Yes, because basically I can’t change it. Of course, especially as a singer, I look whether I can react to the hall with my voice and adapt nuances, but those are only small details. The backstage setting is more important to me, so that I can really take care of myself in my little cocoon.

On 24 and 25 January, you will bring “invisible” American music to the Isarphilharmonie as conductor and singer with the Munich Philharmonic. Tell us about that.

The arrangement as a whole is a world premiere. All the pieces in the first half were written in an America that was just at the start of its development, especially in terms of its art. Ruth Crawford Seeger, Wallingford Riegger and Carl Ruggles are not exactly household names. But they were part of a circle who, walking in Charles Ives’ footsteps, developed a truly American, dissonant sound around 1920 that was not overshadowed by European music. In the second half, I want to show the beautiful American music, with Rodgers’ The Carousel Waltz and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture, which Robert Russell Bennett arranged. The melodies and orchestration are absolutely heart-rending.

In 2026, you will take up your first full-time position as conductor, with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Do you also have a bucket list for 2025?

Yes, every New Year I make a list of the music I want to sing and the people I want to work with. Sometimes things turn up several times because I haven’t been able to make them happen yet; and sometimes I strike something from the list because it’s no longer important. One resolution for 2025 is that I want to give myself more time off and try to stop earlier sometimes. Moving to the Brittany countryside in 2021 has done me good. Here, I take time to go out into nature every day. Finding a slightly different balance in life became more and more important to me over the years. And that improves my singing and increases my love for music even more.