PETER HANNAN

has completed about 70 commissions, both acoustic and electronic for widely diverse musical situations, including pieces for the Vancouver Symphony; the Winnipeg Symphony, the CBC Orchestra and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra;  works for the experimental large ensembles Icebreaker (London) , the Hardrubber Orchestra, and Toronto based Hemispheres. His piece for the Vancouver Symphony, side with entropy received a raucus reception at its premiere in March 2005. 

Writing for singers is a major interest. His recent recording of vocal music Rethink Forever, won “Best Classical Recording” at the 2011 Western Canada Music Awards . 

This interest in writing for singers also extends to opera . 

A very fruitful and inspiring collaboration of recent years has been with the director and playwright Peter Hinton. Hannan and Hinton have created three new opera/music theatre works together . 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade  opened in Vancouver in March 2002, and The Diana Cantata appeared in February 2003, both works produced by Modern Baroque Opera . A new work Beautiful Beast  which was commissioned by the National Arts Centre is currently in development. Hannan also wrote the music for Peter Hinton’s 2006 production of The Duchess of Malfi at the Stratford Festival of Canada. 

Other recordings include PHH!K Songs  with Henry Kucharzyk and Christine Duncan,  Breakdown, his solo CD of new recorder music, and numerous Canadian and international radio recordings, including CBC Radio, BBC Radio, WDR Koln, Radio Bremen, Radio France, and NOS Radio, Holland. 

As a performer, Hannan spent many years performing as an electronic instrumentalist and recorder soloist, in particular with Toronto composer Henry Kucharzyk in the duo PHH!K.  He has performed as a soloist on many major new music events and series including :  Ijsbreker Amsterdam,  the Holland Festival,  Almeida Festival, Freunde Guter Musik Berlin, the   Bourges Electronic Music Festival, New Music America, New Music Concerts and Arraymusic. 

In the 1980’s and 90’s he toured and recorded throughout North America and Europe with Suzie Leblanc and New World Consort . His recording Baroque Sonatas and Canzonas with harpsichordist Colin Tilney from 1985 is still played regularly on BBC Radio.