Chloé Dufresne Conductor

Chloé Dufresne is making her mark as a conductor to watch with her clear technique, calm authority and wide palette of colours. A prize winner at both the 2021 Malko and Besançon Conducting Competitions, Dufresne was a Conducting Fellow at the 2022 Lucerne Festival and a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 22-23 season. Dudamel subsequently invited her onto the Opéra de Paris Académie for 23/24.

Since completing her Masters in Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in 2020, Chloé Dufresne has conducted across Finland and extensively in France including concerts with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Montpellier and recently with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She is strong in romantic and contemporary music and was praised by Besançon jury chair Paul Daniel for her ‘originality and freshness, and an especially good understanding of Camille Pépin.’

Dufresne’s vocal and choral conducting backgrounds lend her naturally to opera. She has conducted titles including Mozart Don Giovanni, Bellini Norma, Britten Albert Herring and Offenbach Pomme d’Api for Opéra Rouen, Opéra de Toulon, Opéra Nice and Opéra National de Lorraine and a Bayreuth production of Wagner’s Ring for children at the Helsinki Festival. Last season she conducted a new production of Donizetti Elisir d’amore for Angers Nantes Opéra, Gounod Faust for Opéra de Vichy and Offenbach Le Voyage dans la Lune at opera houses in Massy, Metz, Reims and Rouen.

Highlights of the 23/24 season include her Japanese debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducting Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, Basel Sinfonietta and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras and return visits to Orchestre National de Bretagne and l’Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier.

Chloé Dufresne studied viola, singing and choral conducting before completing her Masters in conducting from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2020 where her teachers included Atso Almila, Sakari Oramo and Alain Altinoglu. She attended masterclasses with Mikko Franck, Paavo Jarvi, Hannu Lintu, David Zinman Thomas Adè and Susanna Mälkki and has assisted Sakari Oramo, Gustavo Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen