Barbara Dragan was a Young Associate Conductor at Orchestre National de France in Paris, where she prepared and recorded the entire Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre National de France, winning a Grammy for this project.
Her 2025/26 debuts include performances with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, DSO Berlin, and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. She will also make her debut in Bucarest, Zagreb, Georgia, Nancy, Tours, and Vienna.
She returns to RTVE Orquesta y Coro Madrid, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, National Orchestra of Chile and Beethoven Orchester Bonn among others.
Previously, she was a conducting fellow at the Cabrillo and Ravinia Festivals, as well as at the Dallas Opera Hart Institute. She has participated in major international competitions including the Mahler, Princess Astrid, Svetlanov, and Deutsche Dirigentenpreis.
Her artistry has been shaped by mentors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Kazuki Yamada, Trevor Pinnock, and Marin Alsop. She holds degrees from Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and the Universität der Künste Berlin. Born into a Polish scientific family, she began playing violin at the age of five and also excelled in mathematics and physics.
She is currently a fellow of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung’s Akademie Musiktheater Heute. She performs on baroque violin and draws inspiration from Jerzy Grotowski’s “poor theatre”.
