About Hannah

“Her music is striking, varied, and emotionally mature beyond her youth.”

-Sounds of the World Podcast

Composer and soprano Hannah Rice (b. 2000) is drawn to extremes. She writes with dense textures and stark contrasts to highlight the experiences of womxn and queer folks. She is interested in capturing the politics of non-verbal communication through a feminist lens and channeling its energy through raw, cathartic, and sometimes child-like sounds in concert music.

Hannah’s music has been performed at notable festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, Cadogan Hall in London, New Music on the Point, the International Clarinet Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and more. Her film music has also been featured on APM Music’s sound library, MPATH. This summer, she looks forward to attending the 2024 Aspen Music Festival.

A champion of vocal music, Hannah was recently commissioned by Vox Anima London to write a choral piece for their 2024 International Women’s Day Concert in London. In 2021, she was 1 of only 10 composers selected by the National Association of Teachers of Singing to be a part of their 2021-22 Composer Mentorship Program which included a commission from NATS, with major support from Lori Laitman, and the Cincinnati Song Initiative for their June 2022 concert, Let it Be New. That same year, her choral piece “To Fly a Plane” from Dear World was published by Hal Leonard under the Craig Hella Johnson series. Currently, she is working on a new art song for the Prima Voce Emerging Artist 2025 Season.

Not only is Hannah a composer but she is also an active performer of opera and new music. Her recent roles include the Soprano Soloist in Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone, Controller in Flight, Soeur Constance in Dialogues des Carmelites, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Despina in Così fan tutte, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her own chamber opera, Seneca Falls. She is also an avid performer of chamber and choral music, recently appearing as the soprano soloist in Edge Ensemble’s performance of Nina Shekhar’s Quirkhead and singing weekly as a chorister in the Choir of St. James.

Currently, Hannah is pursuing a double M.M. at USC’s Thornton School of Music under the direction of Ted Hearne, Nina Young, Frank Ticheli, and Elizabeth Hynes where she was recently awarded the Peter David Faith Endowed Memorial Award in composition for her orchestra piece, [æ]. She holds a B.M. in Composition (Mara Gibson) and Voice (Lori Bade) from LSU where she was named a Presser Scholar and University Medalist.