A native New Yorker based in Paris, Elizabeth Askren is establishing a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic as a passionate conductor at home in both symphonic and operatic repertoire.  Since 2005 she works as Assistant Conductor to David Stern and his period instrument opera troupe, Opera Fuoco for productions throughout Europe. She is the former Music Director of the Chorus and Orchestra of Sciences Po Paris (2000-2006), and Founder and Director of PONT – Portes Ouvertes aux Nouveaux Talents, a pre-professional program for artists and musicians in residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis.   An advocate of modern and contemporary music, Elizabeth Askren is the Music Director of Orchestre 2021, dedicated to promoting 20th and 21st century repertoire.  Appointed Cultural Attachée of the Fondation des Etats-Unis in 2004, she is the Artistic Director of the Fondation’s cultural season, offering between 30 and 40 events per season and featuring a vibrant mix of noted cultural and political figures, PONT Showcase events, and partnerships with leading cultural institutions.  She serves on the jury of the FLAME International Music Competition since 2003.

Elizabeth Askren has guest conducted at several noted French venues and festivals such as the Salle Gaveau, the Moulin d’Andé, the Singer-Polignac Foundation, and the Academy of Villecroze, and was recently invited to premiere contemporary works of Aubert Lemeland with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.  She has assisted conductors John Nelson, Janos Furst, Bernard Labadie, Pierre-Michel Durand, Antonio Florio, James Bagwell, and Louis Lane, for projects throughout Europe and the United States.  An active proponent of community outreach projects, Ms. Askren is invited regularly as pianist, coach, and conductor for education ateliers for Opera Fuoco and Orchestre Promethée at the National Theater of Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Paris’ le 104, and in public schools throughout Ile-de-France. In the fall of 2008 she created and directed the Fondation des Etats-Unis’ “A Century of Elliott Carter/Un siècle d’Elliott Carter”, an 8-part cultural celebration spanning three generations of international artists, which included partnerships with leading institutions such as Ircam, the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris, and the Embassy of the United States of America.

Laureate of the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Fondation Royaumont, and the Fondation des Etats-Unis, Elizabeth Askren was awarded the BPO Musicians’ Company Conductor’s Bursary as a 2008-09 Aldeburgh Conducting Fellow.  In 2009 she was chosen by Lorin Maazel as a Conducting Apprentice during the inaugural edition of the Castleton Festival in Virginia.  Ms. Askren competed as one of 12 Finalist Candidates for the 2010 Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition with the Bamberg Symphony.  She has most recently been awarded France’s « jeunes talents chefs d’orchestre » 2010 prize from Adami, culminating in a showcase concert at the Salle Gaveau with the Orchestre de Colonne in the fall.

Elizabeth Askren has participated in several international masterclasses and festivals (Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, Tanglewood BUTI, Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival, Vendôme Academy, Vienna Hochschule, Salzburg Mozarteum, Villecroze) with conductors Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Ton Koopman, Pinchas Zuckerman, pianists Jacques Rouvier, Sergio Perticaroli, and leading pedagogues Kenneth Kiesler and Daniel Lewis.  She holds diplomas in piano and conducting from the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, and Bard’s Conducting Institute in the United States and the Schola Cantorum and Ecole Normale de Musique in France.  Her teachers include: conductors Harold Farberman, Janos Furst, Dominique Rouits, and Louis Lane; pianists Byron Janis, Germaine Tocatlian, and Joseph Schwartz; and composers Joan Tower and Andrew Thomas.