The Score | Leading Indicator

It has been a jam-packed year for Barbara Hannigan. This winter, Hannigan—who divides her time between conducting and singing—made her New York podium debut leading the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall (below). The orchestra performed “Salome’s Dance” from Strauss’s Salome; Haydn’s Symphony No. 96; Debussy’s Syrinx with Juilliard flutist Emma Resmini; Sibelius’s Luonnatar, with Juilliard soprano Meghan Kasanders; and Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite. In February, Hannigan won Denmark’s highest musical honor, the 2020 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, and in March, she picked up a Canadian Juno Award for her vocal recital album Vienna: Fin de siècle with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw. In June, she serves as music director of California’s Ojai Festival, where she will perform and curate multiple programs, including conducting a semi-staged production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress featuring members of her Equilibrium mentoring initiative for young professional artists. And in 2019-20, she becomes principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony, the national orchestra of Sweden. All that, and Hannigan continues her career as an in-demand soprano.