Presented by The Janice & Earle O’Born Fund for Artistic Excellence

Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou

in recital

2024-12-14 20:00 2024-12-14 23:00 60 Canada/Eastern 🎟 NAC: Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou

https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36081

In-person event

Experience the enthralling energy of Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan and French pianist Bertrand Chamayou for one evening only. Barbara Hannigan is a wunderkind, who sings and conducts (often at the same time). It is no surprise that she has been the recipient of a Juno and Grammy Award. Hannigan and Chamayou are individual powerhouses but together, they are a tour de force.  Barbara Hannigan is one of the few people in the world who performs simultaneously as a featured singer and...

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Southam Hall,1 Elgin Street,Ottawa,Canada
Sat, December 14, 2024
8 PM EST
Barbara Hannigan © Marco Borggreve
bertrand-chamayou-marco-borggreve-025-cropped
Bertrand Chamayou © Marco Borggreve
Music Classical music Vocal Piano Opera
bertrand-chamayou-marco-borggreve-025-cropped
Bertrand Chamayou © Marco Borggreve
  • Messiaen Chants de Terre et de Ciel
  • A. SCRIABIN Poème-nocturne
  • A. SCRIABIN Vers laflamme
  • JOHN ZORN Jumalattaret
  • In-person event
  • ≈ 2 hours · With intermission

Experience the enthralling energy of Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan and French pianist Bertrand Chamayou for one evening only. Barbara Hannigan is a wunderkind, who sings and conducts (often at the same time). It is no surprise that she has been the recipient of a Juno and Grammy Award. Hannigan and Chamayou are individual powerhouses but together, they are a tour de force. 

Barbara Hannigan is one of the few people in the world who performs simultaneously as a featured singer and conductor. Driven to “be the music” (osm.ca), she finds great joy in championing new composers and regularly performs world premieres of music by contemporary artists.

Pianist Bertrand Chamayou can play the classics with ease, but like Barbara, he is also a champion of twenty-first-century composers. In spring 2024, he and Barbara released a collaborative Messiaen vocal project and this evening’s program will include a Messiaen set. Composer Olivier Messiaen was fascinated by birdsong, considering birds to be the greatest musicians, and his music is similarly full of complex rhythms and harmonies. 

Hannigan and Chamayou will also interpret Scriabin and Zorn. Composer Alexandre Scriabin wrote sensual, intriguing compositions for the piano. There is no greater example of this than Poème-nocturne, which evokes “an intrigue among young lovers” (allmusic.com). Scriabin’s slow-burning Vers laflamme builds to scorching chords that really do sound like flames. 

Hannigan has called John Zorn’s Jumalattaret “life changing.” The song requires the singer to “wobble vibrato like birdsong…laugh deeply, as if possessed; play percussion and clap…between these passages is astonishing beauty” (nytimes.com)

Artists

  • barbara-hannigan-1-c-marcoborggreve-cropped
    soprano Barbara Hannigan
  • portrait-bchamayou-deauville
    piano Bertrand Chamayou