When the stage production of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin premieres in the U.S. at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival this month, Barbara Hannigan will reprise the role of Agnès, which she created at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and has subsequently sung in Toulouse, London, Vienna, Munich, Paris, and Toronto. ​“The best opera written in twenty years” (Le Monde), Written on Skin tells the story of a woman trapped in a cruel marriage and an illicit affair. Alan Gilbert conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, whose unique sound was one of the composer’s inspirations. The 11 – 15 August performances mark a Mostly Mozart debut for all of the performing artists. On singing Written on Skin in New York, Hannigan has said, ​“It’s thrilling to be part of a contemporary opera that has enjoyed such incredible (and deserved) international success. I am so proud to help bring this astonishing work to New York audiences, and to live as this character once again.”

Later this season, Hannigan gives the U.S. premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s let me tell you with The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, first in Cleveland, and then at Carnegie Hall on 17 January, 2016. The invitation for Hannigan to sing as a surprise birthday gift for writer and critic Paul Griffiths turned into the Berliner Philharmoniker commission of the song cycle, based on text from Griffiths’ experimental novella, narrated by Hamlet​’s Ophelia. The resulting 30-minute work, divided into past, present, and future, is Abrahamsen’s first major vocal work. Hannigan also performs it in February with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, who conducted her in the Berliner Philharmoniker premiere. A recording with Hannigan, Nelsons, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks will be released in early 2016 on the Winter & Winter label.

On the heels of her Written on Skin performances, Hannigan makes her North American conducting debut in her native Canada with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra this autumn. The varied programme in October showcases Hannigan as a conductor and a singer with Nono’s Djamila Boupacha, Haydn’s Symphony No.49, Mozart arias, Ligeti’s Concert Românesc, and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements.

In 2015/16, Hannigan will also conduct the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, and Münchner Philharmoniker. Other projects this season include singing Poulenc’s La Voix humaine at the Opera national de Paris under Esa-Pekka Salonen’s direction; a film poem on the female voice with French filmmaker Mathieu Amalric, released this autumn; and an exhibit of 3D pictures of Hannigan and dancer Carolyn Carlson by Philippe Cometti, which is currently open at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.