Conductor
Barbara Dragan is a Young Associate Conductor at Orchestre National de France , where most recently she prepared and recorded the entire Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Paris).
Her recording of “Léna et l’orchestre enchanté” with the ONF (music by Mathieu Lamboley) was released in September 2023 by Gallimard Jeuness / France Music and promoted during the concert in January 2024 at sold-out Auditorum Radio France in Paris to very warm reviews.
She took part as conducting fellow in Cabrillo New Music Festival in Santa Cruz and Ravinia Festival in Chicago, in the season 2021/22 she was named Conducting Fellow at the Dallas Opera Hart Institute.
Dragan took part in numerous finals of international conducting competitions such as the Mahler Competition in Bamberg, Princess Astrid Conducting Competition in Trondheim, the Svetlanov Conducting Competition in Monaco, or German Conductors’ Award in Cologne.
Sir Roger Norrington, Kazuki Yamada, Trevor Pinnock and Marin Alsop are among her longtime mentors. She is an award recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF), Claussen-Simon Stiftung and the DAAD Fellowships. She is a graduate of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Universität der Künste in Berlin and Frédéric Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She was born into a Polish family of scientists. She started playing the violin at the age of five. Whilst studying the violin and the oboe, she passed her final exams in advanced mathematics and physics.
She currently plays the baroque violin and is fascinated by Jerzy Grotowski’s ‘poor theatre’.
Her recent engagements include Orchestre de Paris, Opera de Toulon, Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NOSPR Katowice, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Dallas Opera.
Léna et l’orchestre enchanté with Orchestre National de France, 2022 for Gallimard Jeunesse
Music to podcast “TinTin et le Secret de la Licorne” with Orchestre National de France, 2023 for France Music
Full Opening Ceremony of Olympic Games Paris 2024 with Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Paris / Celine Dion, Lady Gaga