Rafael Payare and Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony
Each of Barbara Hannigan’s performances is a moment of staggering intensity, heightened by this soprano’s charisma and deep sensitivity. A specialist of the contemporary repertoire, she will introduce us to In the half-light by Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri, a work she premiered in 2022. Rafael Payare will also conduct Bruckner’s luminous “Romantic” Symphony, whose impassioned surges reach their apex in a sublime coda.
Each of Barbara Hannigan’s performances is a moment of staggering intensity, heightened by this soprano’s charisma and deep sensitivity. A specialist of the contemporary repertoire, she will introduce us to In the half-light by Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri, a work she premiered in 2022. Rafael Payare will also conduct Bruckner’s luminous “Romantic” Symphony, whose impassioned surges reach their apex in a sublime coda.
Artists
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, conductor
Barbara Hannigan, soprano
Program
Zosha Di Castri, In the half-light (text by Tash Aw, 28 min.)
Intermission
Bruckner, Symphony no. 4 in E-flat major, WAB 104, “Romantic” (70 min.)
Rafael Payare
conductorDistinguished by innate musicianship, a gift for communication, and an irresistibly joyous spirit, conductor Rafael Payare began playing horn in Venezuela’s El Sistema program at age 14 and started his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning Denmark’s prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, his career has advanced rapidly. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019; has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel, since 2015; became Music Director of the San Diego Symphony in 2019, and three years later became Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In recent years, Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Hamburg, and Paris, besides making important opera debuts at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Glyndebourne Festival; Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera; and the Royal Danish Opera.
Barbara Hannigan
Soprano and conductorEmbodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Over more than three decades, she has forged extraordinary artistic partnerships with the world’s foremost musicians, directors and choreographers, such as Bertrand Chamayou, John Zorn, Romeo Castellucci, Simon Rattle and Kent Nagano. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.
The Grammy and Juno Award winning Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world premiere performances of nearly 100 new creations. Recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam’s I am Not a Tale to be Told with Iceland and London Symphony Orchestras, John Zorn’s Split the Lark and Star Catcher, and Zosha di Castri’s In the Half Light with the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.
Her awards and honours include being the 2025 Polar Music Prize Laureate, 2025 Musical America Artist of the Year, the Order of Canada (2016), Officier des Arts et des Lettres in France (2022), and Gramophone Magazine’s 2022 Artist of the Year, among many others.