Hannah Chan-Hartley

CREATOR OF THE VISUAL LISTENING GUIDE

Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley is a public musicologist who specializes in communicating about music to audiences in rigorous, engaging, and innovative ways. Often acting as a bridge between the classical music industry and academic settings, she is active as a writer, editor, speaker, content producer, musicological consultant, and instructor with various arts organizations, including Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Opera, and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In July 2023, she returned to the Verbier Festival as Musicologist-in-Residence at the invitation of UNLTD, the Festival’s creative lab, and the Verbier Festival Academy; there, in addition to giving pre-concert talks with the Visual Listening Guide, she presented the successful world debut of the Augmented Reality Visual Listening Guide. She was also in this role in 2018 and 2022, when she presented the Visual Listening Guide in talks and workshops with festival goers and the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.

Hannah was previously Managing Editor and Musicologist at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Canada). It was in this role that she initially developed her Visual Listening Guides, which were first published in the TSO’s program books, and have since been used by orchestras, educators, and classical music lovers around the world. She wrote about the Visual Listening Guide for a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory (Oxford University Press, pub. online 2021; forthcoming in print in 2024), edited by J. Daniel Jenkins.

Hannah has performed professionally as an orchestral violinist and enjoys playing chamber music. She continues to pursue her research interests in the social and cultural history of music and music institutions, focusing on the Europe-North America transatlantic context from the 19th century to the present day, as well as the performance and reception history of orchestral music and opera.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Music in Honours Violin Performance from McGill University, a Master of Philosophy in Musicology and Performance from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Want a deeper dive into the Visual Listening Guide experience?

Hannah is available for speaking engagements, including pre-concert talks, lectures, and interactive education workshops, using the Guides as a focal point. Sessions can easily be tailored to specific goals and type of audience. Contact us for information!