Biography

Barry Hannigan recently retired as the Ellen P. Williams Professor of Music, Emeritus, at Bucknell University. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Recital Hall in 1984 and has since received rave reviews in major cities across the United States. Paul Moor of Musical America wrote: “He absolutely bowled me over…with his extraordinary proficiency.”

Hannigan made his European debut at the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and has subsequently performed in Russia, England, China, Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand. He has appeared as guest artist at a host of American universities, such as UCLA, Yale, Cornell, and the Universities of Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona State, and Texas. Festival and series performances include venues such as Real Art Ways in Hartford, the Syracuse New Music Society, Wildflower Festival, and Roulette in New York City. Dozens of his performances have been aired on National Public Radio affiliate stations across the U.S.

He is the recipient of many awards and prizes, including those from the Ford, Belin, Surdna, and Presser Foundations. For three years he toured Pennsylvania promoting works by living Pennsylvania composers, underwritten by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He has also received a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, an award intended to recognize the nation’s outstanding recitalists.

Hannigan has recorded for Opus One, SEAMUS, Seesaw Music, SCI, and Radio Telefis Eireann in Dublin, and has released four solo CDs for Black Canyon Records. Sample performances with orchestra include Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations with the Omaha Symphony and a chamber concerto written for him that was premiered with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

Hannigan received Bucknell University’s highest award for inspirational teaching. His students have earned graduate performance degrees in piano at schools such as Peabody, Eastman, and the New England Conservatory.

Honors

Selected to the roster of Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour
Class of ’56 Lectureship for inspirational teaching
National Endowment for the Arts: Solo Recitalist Grant
Three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grants that supported three years of touring featuring music of living Pennsylvania composers. I commissioned works by composers Larry Nelson, Maurice Wright, Bruce Reiprich, Steven Block, and James Mobberley
Selected as outstanding alumnus of the piano division: recital for the centennial of the University of Colorado’s School of Music
McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase, Radio WQXR, New York City
Winner of competition for the Belin Scholarship, an $8000.00 prize
Harold Cook Award
Ford Foundation Composition Grant
Surdna Foundation Fellowship
Cowperthwaite Prize
Presser Foundation Scholarship
Bridges Memorial Scholarship
Phi Beta Kappa
Pi Kappa Lambda