Barbara Dragan

Barbara Dragan is an accomplished conductor with a diverse and successful international career leading orchestras such as Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Tonkünstler Orchester, Orquestra Sinfónica de RTVE, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine and NOSPR Katowice. A former Young Associate Conductor at The ONF, working closely with Cristian Macelaru, she has been mentored by Roger Norrington, Kazuki Yamada, John Carewe, Simone Rattle, Trevor Pinnock and Marin Alsop and is an award recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF). In 2024 Dragan conducted the pre-recordings for the entire Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics with both Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre National de France. The part of the recording featuring Gojira and Marina Viotti won a Grammy Award in 2025.

She will open her 2025/26 season with a return to the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile where she was recently appointed Artistic Advisor for the season. She debuts with Malmö Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Opéra National de Lorraine. Later she will return to the Dallas Opera in a performance for the Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Further highlights include appearances with Orquesta y Coro RTVE Madrid, HRT Zagreb, Wiener Concert Verein, and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. In summer 2026 she will be touring with the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie.

Dragan has held fellowships at the Cabrillo New Music Festival in Santa Cruz at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and was appointed Conducting Fellow at the Dallas Opera for the 2021/22 season. She was a finalist in several international conducting competitions, including the Mahler Competition in Bamberg, the Princess Astrid Competition in Trondheim, the Svetlanov Competition in Monaco, and the German Conducting Prize in Cologne. She is a current holder of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung Akademie Musiktheater Heute scholarship.

A graduate of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and the Universität der Künste Berlin, Barbara Dragan was born into a Polish family of scientists. She began playing the violin at the age of five. During her violin and oboe studies, she passed her final exams in mathematics and physics and currently plays the baroque violin.