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, volatile, 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 harmonic 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.

Currently a DMus student at McGill University studying composition with Prof. Philippe Leroux, Hannah completed degrees in composition (MMus w/Distinction ’21, BMus High Honours ’19) from DePaul University, with additional studies in conducting. Collaboration is central to Barnes’s compositional practice. She has worked closely with soloists, including oboist Kyle Bruckmann, guitarist Jesse Langen, hornist Tarre Nelson, vocalist Joanna Mieleszko, percussionist Alexandre Garde, pianist Ian Pace, violinists Bailey Wantuch and Jennifer Gersten, duos Garden Unit and Flannau Duo, and the brass musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik to develop new works. As composer-in-residence, she composed a large ensemble work for McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble in 2024. Upcoming commissions include new works for Boston-based Lamnth (violin + cimbalom), Montréal-based Quatuor Memoire (string quartet + mezzo-soprano), piano automaton (outHEAR Festival 2026), guitarist Jamie Monck and electric guitarist Matt Sargent.

Her work has been performed in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Australia, in programs including the DePaul and Dal Niente Summer Residence for New Music (2020), the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (2021), the Yarn/Wire Summer Institute (2022), Omaha Under the Radar Festival (2022), the Darmstadt Summer Courses (2023, 2025), the Musikfabrik Virtual Brass Academy (2025), and Impuls Academy (2025) and at schools of music including DePaul University, McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, UC Davis, UC Berkeley (CNMAT), the New England Conservatory, the University of Arkansas, Florida State University, Benedictine College, and the City University of London.

Barnes’ work for oboe and electronics, “Dis/inte/gration” (2019, rev. 2020) was recorded by Kyle Bruckmann and included on his album of rivers, released March 2024. Her debut album, Negative Capability: Works by Hannah A. Barnes, was released in December 2024, and includes performances by Ensemble Dal Niente, Kyle Flens, Jesse Langen, Garden Unit, and DePaul University’s Ensemble 20+. Her work has been acknowledged in the Chicago Reader and “Best of Bandcamp,” selected in calls for scores in the United States, Canada and Austria, played on impulsradio (Graz/Helsinki), and awarded an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Awards honourable mention for her work “five images.”

Hannah founded the "rhythm is image" new music initiative after being struck by the inexplicable and insatiable desire to perform Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I in 2019. She has a special interest in organizing, conducting, and performing in concerts, focusing on experimental performance practice and advocating for “difficult” music. rhythm is image has performed as parts of concert series and festivals in Chicago, Montréal, Omaha (Nebraska), and Fayetteville (Arkansas).

As a conductor, her focus is on contemporary music, following studies with Prof. Michael Lewanski. She conducted premieres at the DePaul and Dal Niente Summer Residency for New Music in 2020 and 2021 as well as at several concerts at McGill. Her dream conducting projects are Grisey's "Vortex Temporum" and Stockhausen's "Gruppen."

Hannah is also a devoted educator. She has taught theory and aural skills to high schoolers at the Chicago Music Academy (2022-23), students at DePaul University (as Lecturer of Music Theory from 2021-23), and McGill University (as Lecturer of Music Theory, 2024). While at McGill, she served as president of Le Vivier InterUniversitaire and the McGill Association of Student Composers, and Vice President of the Music Graduate Student Society. She was a Writing Fellow through the Graduate Writing Centre in 2024-25, where she developed and implemented initiatives to support Schulich School of Music graduate students with their written academic milestones. She contributed a chapter on composition pedagogy and approaches to teaching composing for a forthcoming book to be published by Routledge.

Barnes lives in Montréal with her terrier, Kaylee, and maintains a strong connection to her roots in Chicago. Her compositional practice is fuelled by strong coffee, postmodern literature, the study of Irish mythology and tradition, and Pilates.

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