A French-American pianist and conductor, Elizabeth Askren is a graduate of some of the world’s leading institutions: The Juilliard School, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Bard Conducting Institute (USA), and the École Normale de Musique…
Praised by the press for her “energetic and precise gestures” and “an irresistibly captivating confidence,” Elizabeth Askren conducts internationally renowned orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris… Equally at home in the world of opera, she has recently performed with the orchestras of the Toulon and Dallas opera houses, as well as with the Romanian National Opera in Cluj.
She is also the founder and artistic director of the Transylvanian Opera Academy, Romania’s first opera studio. Since its founding in 2017, TOA has established a number of high-profile Franco-Romanian partnerships, notably with the Ministry of Culture and the Paris National Opera Academy, and has collaborated with Cluj’s leading cultural institutions (the Romanian and Hungarian National Operas, the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy, etc.).
Elizabeth Askren serves on the jury of several European international competitions (including the Philharmonie de Paris’s “Tremplin jeunes cheffes d’orchestre,” the Mozart Society of Romania, and the MAWOMA Awards). A recipient of several awards—including those from ADAMI, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Royaumont Foundation, the United States Foundation, and the Britten-Pears Foundation—she is a “Young Leader” of the French American Foundation.