Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou

Artist-in-Residence of the Prague Spring 2026 Barbara Hannigan is one of the most original figures in the sphere of classical music. With her typical courage and determination she sings and also conducts, she inspires the finest contemporary composers in their endeavours, and she creates unique projects which go far beyond the customary concert experience. Born in Canada, she has performed the premieres of more than one hundred works. She collaborates with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. She is Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, she holds the positions of Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Première Artiste Invitée of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and in the autumn of 2026 she will take up her post as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her exceptional artistic achievements are moreover reflected in a number of prestigious awards, among them a Grammy Award, the title Artist of the Year from Gramophone magazine, and the Polar Music Prize 2025, a Swedish international award established by music publisher and manager of ABBA Stig Anderson, which she won together with jazzman Herbie Hancock and the rock band Queen. Her Prague Spring residency will consist of four concerts.

The first concert will be a joint recital given by soprano Barbara Hannigan and superb French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. “After both European and North American tours I am thrilled to be able to introduce the Czech audience to this very spiritual programme,” says Barbara Hannigan. Prague concertgoers will thus finally be able to hear the utterly unique cycle Jumalattaret by American composer and multi-instrumentalist John Zorn (*1953). These songs, originating in 2012 as a musical setting of fragments from the Finnish national epic Kalevala, were long considered unsingable. Here the singer is reincarnated into Finnish pagan goddesses; “each measure is a minefield of intonation and technique” (The New York Times). This work, whose performance actually takes your breath away, is fascinating for the incredible vocal range it requires, from incredibly high top notes to throat-singing, ethereal humming, whispering, laughter and a voice that vibrates like birdsong. “It’s one of those pieces that was life-changing,” Barbara Hannigan declared of Jumalattaret. “You’ve got to tame the wild horse and get a saddle on it,” she said. “This piece took a lot for me to be able to do that.” Jumalattaret is such an astounding work that to hear it performed live by the Hannigan – Chamayou duo will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the Prague Spring 2026. Moreover, not only will this be the first performance of Jumalattaret in the Czech Republic, but also the Prague Spring debut of Barbara Hannigan.

The recital programme will open with Chants de terre et de ciel (Songs of Earth and Heaven) by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), which this classic of 20th century French music wrote to his own texts. The cycle originated in 1938, inspired by the joyous birth of the composer’s son Pascal, to whom two of the six songs are dedicated. “The superb projection of Hannigan’s voice and the rainbow of colours in Chamayou’s piano lay bare the sexual desire and religious fervour prevalent in Messiaen’s early works,” wrote Britain’s The Guardian in a review of their joint recording of the songs. The two artists have already performed Chants de terre et de ciel in Berlin, Paris, New York, Brussels and other major world venues, and it’s wonderful that Prague listeners will have the opportunity to hear the cycle as well.