Canadian Barbara Hannigan is a phenomenon - "one of the world's foremost interpreters of classical music" writes the Polar Music Prize jury, in short. Since 2009, she has both sung and conducted - something that, among others, the Gothenburg audience has experienced. There, she is the first guest conductor for the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra - just one of her many permanent assignments for various orchestras.
Singing and breathing are always present, it has been a part of me even before I could talk. I have always sung, she says.
This year's Polar Music Prize winner has been "traveling in music" since she was 17, but now has her own home in Finistère, France - known to Swedes through a book by Bodil Malmsten.
A new path
When Barbara Hannigan started conducting, it was because someone got her to try it, without knowing that it would open a new path in her music-making.
How is it even possible to keep the different parts of an orchestra in a musical piece in your head, to lead it, and simultaneously sing? The Polar Music Prize jury highlights her "dazzling musicality and courage".
What the audience sees during the performance is very different compared to how we start rehearsals, she says over the phone from London.
Commissioned herself
It's Sunday and she's rearranging her brain before the start of rehearsals for a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, which she - like the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra - knows well and which always wants her to sing - and conduct - some of the works. This time, Sibelius' "Luonnotar" and the newly written "Je ne suis pas une fable à conter" which she herself commissioned from Iranian Golfam Khayam.
During rehearsals, her goal is to hand over part of the leadership to the orchestra's musicians, to make them equal as in a much smaller chamber orchestra, she explains.
When we reach that, it's very rewarding and special.
Born: 1971 in Nova Scotia, Canada.
About the Polar Music Prize: "It's overwhelming. I also see it as a recognition for the path I chose and hope that younger musicians see it as an opportunity. There are many paths to take, mine was not traditional in any way."
Permanent assignments: First guest conductor for the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and for the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. First guest artist at the French Radio Symphony Orchestra, and guest artist at the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as incoming chief conductor and artistic leader for the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.
