Hannah A Barnes 🐝

We are pleased to feature music by Hannah Barnes in our upcoming show ‘Grit’ on May 23rd 🎶 Tickets at /product/grit Hannah A. Barnes (b. 1997) is a Montréal-based composer and conductor. Her work centres on crafting structured yet dynamic, multi-faceted musical worlds characterized by mercurial, off-kilter, and seemingly incompatible materials. These works straddle tension and expression for both performers and listeners. Barnes’ main concerns are (re)defining Modernism in the twenty-first century, investigating manifestations of complexity and polyphony, and addressing questions of syntax and semantics within a non-narrative musical language that encompasses both pitch- and noise-based materials. Having been described by a performer as composing “alien music,” she embraces the strange, unpredictable and mysterious in art of all kinds. Her work has been performed in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan, and Australia by myriad musicians including Ensemble Dal Niente, members of Ensemble Musikfabrik, pianist Ian Pace, oboist Kyle Bruckmann, guitarist Jesse Langen, percussionists Kyle Flens and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, vocalists Joanna Mieleszko and Rebecca Gray, Quatuor Mémoire, Winfried Ritsch’s piano automaton, fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and more. Holding degrees in composition from DePaul University (MM w/Distinction ‘21, BM High Honours ‘19) with additional studies in conducting, she is currently a DMus candidate at McGill University, studying with Philippe Leroux.

Spring/Summer performances in Chicago, Montréal, Brisbane, Cologne, Essen and Sansepolcro! 🎻🥁🎶 I’m delighted to have “five images” selected in the Civix Orchestra call for scores concert; Chicago friends and family, I’d love to see you there on May 17th, as I will be back in town for it!! I am an extremely lucky and happy composer, and it’s going to be a fun summer!

It’s not every day you get to write for a piano automaton. Here’s about a third of my new piece, “Spectrehymnia” from yesterday’s dress rehearsal. Many, many thanks to @outhear_newmusic and Prof. Winfried Ritsch for this opportunity! Program note: Spectrehymnia is a piece concerned with what is and isn’t “pianistic” in a piece for piano, but without a pianist. Density and continuity are two primary concerns which manifest in different ways, beginning where Liszt left off with the “third hand.” Composed for the 2026 outHEAR New Music Week and Prof. Winfried Ritsch’s piano automaton, this piece refers to and is concerned with the “ghost in the machine,” or the human within the non-human, and the Greek goddess Polyhymnia, the muse of sacred poetry and hymns. — HAB

This is just too unbelievably 🆒 to not immediately post. Many many many thanks to @outhear_newmusic and Prof. Winfred Ritsch for the chance to write for THIS THING!!!!!!! I’m so excited to put my piece “Spectrehymnia” together!!

It’s true — west coast = best coast! 🇮🇪☘️ 🌊

Retour en images de notre concert du 19 janvier à @lasalarossa , featuring le @quatuormemoire avec @electric.theory , @composinghannah & Rebecca Gray + @en3.3ne ! Merci aux artistes pour les belles performances, au magnifique public, et à @benthezion pour les belles photos! On se revoit le 9 février!

Many, MANY thank you’s are in order: thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday — 28 ended beautifully and 29 is off to a fantastic start!! Thank you to everyone who came to the concert Monday, this was really a dream come true kind of project and I’m so excited that “The Mysteries Remain” is out in the world now (full recording etc to come). Thank you to my wonderful, truly fantastic collaborators — Bailey, Meggie, Marilou, Audréanne, and Rebecca for SO much hard work on the piece to bring it to life!! It turned out even better than I could have hoped, because of all your work (and counting and microtones)!! Thank you to No Hay Banda for organizing and supporting the concert, and thank you @amaria_gs for your hard work on the recording session!! And lastly, thank you to my amazing parents for coming to spend the long birthday weekend with me!! Here are two short clips from the piece from our Tuesday night recording session — I generally dislike sharing excerpts, but they’ll have to do in the meantime. I attribute my love of heterophony to Irish trad and Pierre Boulez in equal measure. The mysteries are certainly remaining!!

We’re excited to be kicking off 2026 with a show on January 19 at @lasalarossa featuring the great @quatuormemoire , who will be performing works by @electric.theory & @composinghannah for voice and string quartet, for which they’ll be joined by Rebecca Gray! Tickets are available via the link in our bio! Le Quatuor Mémoire est un quatuor à cordes montréalais dédié à la musique contemporaine. Formé depuis 2024 de Bailey Wantuch, Meggie Lacombe, Marilou Lepage et Audréanne Filion, l’ensemble s’investit activement dans la création et la diffusion du répertoire d’aujourd’hui. Leur programme Vertige explore la théâtralité et le drame à travers l’interaction entre la voix humaine et le quatuor à cordes, mettant en vedette deux nouvelles œuvres pour quatuor à cordes et voix commandées aux compositrices montréalaises Hannah A. Barnes et Lily Koslow. Le quatuor sera rejoint par la soprano Rebecca Gray pour The Mysteries Remain de Barnes, et Koslow se joindra au quatuor pour sa pièce Zed. NO HAY BANDA: Quatuor Mémoire + Wapiti & Daniel Leguizamón 19 janvier @ La Sala Rossa Portes 19:30 | Show 20:00 $15/20 (+ fees) in advance | $20/$30 at the door (cash only) *choose your price - no one turned away for lack of funds

COLLABORATION!!!!!!! Many thanks to @cirmmtl for including my piece “clouded winding paths”, composed for @voice.of.a.jeneration with all her expertise and wonderful sounds, on 12.12’s live@CIRMMT concert! Swipe for some rehearsal clips, score excerpts, and post-concert poutine. I’m extremely grateful for such live-giving musical collaboration; this year has been a fantastic continuation of it and I am so excited for what comes next! “Traveler, there are no roads, but we must walk.”

Why fear the end when you have sparkly boots?? Many many thanks to my fantastic collaborators — Lorenzo, Kasra, Olivier, Antonin, Margaux, and McKinley — for helping me finally put this piece together!! “Now to begin — Why fear the end” for Pierrot + percussion — I’ll share the recording when I get it!

Our next concert is right around the corner! Come check out the ATLCMC Chamber Orchestra this November at Oak Grove UMC in Decatur. Works by Hearne, Kay, Van Zandt Lane, Barnes, Fasano, and Kotcheff.

C’était agréable de sortir de ma ‘grotte de composition’ où je travail actuellement sur une nouvelle pièce pour quatour et mezzo-soprano pour @quatuormemoire et @walking_singing ! Concert en janvier !