Biography

"Elizabeth Askren’s conducting captured the score’s magic." - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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"...Askren inspired virtuosic achievements from the pit, from seamless ensemble playing to exposed, characterful solos, all beautifully rendered..." - OPERA TODAY

Praised for “inspiring virtuosic achievements from the pit” (Opera Today) and “palpable happiness” (Le Monde) from the artists with whom she collaborates, Elizabeth Askren empowers musicians around the world as a conductor, educator, and cultural activist.

Her musical leadership is described by La Croix as “present on each  line, each silence.” An OPERA America 2024 Opera Grant winner, Askren performs regularly with leading opera houses and orchestras throughout North America and Europe, including The Dallas Opera, with which she enjoys a privileged relationship as a guest conductor, master teacher, and creative producer, and Hawaii Opera Theatre, of which she is the company's first ever Principal Guest Conductor.

Askren is the Music Director of composer Paola Prestini and poet Brenda Shaughnessey’s Sensorium Ex, a Ford Foundation-funded multi-modal arts project exploring issues at the intersection of AI, disability, and the human voice. Aiming to pioneer new approaches to creating opera in the 21st century, Sensorium Ex is produced by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects and enjoys support from presenting partners The Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, The Shed, and The Washington National Opera.

Maestra Askren is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Transylvanian Opera Academy (TOA), Romania’s first opera studio. Offering a 360° approach to education, TOA guides its young artists to develop holistically as mature artists, centered individuals, and ambassadors of their art to their local communities. Since its creation in 2017, TOA has been featured on national television, radio, and press, while establishing international partnerships with the Paris Opera’s Academy, the Philharmonie de Paris’ La Maestra competition, and Opera for Peace.

Deeply committed to sharing classical music with a broader audience, Askren is the creator and host of the children’s edutainment series MaestraMagic!, a multimedia production combining live action, animation and puppets in a program compared to Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts series. MaestraMagic!'s Season 1 was picked up by The Dallas Opera, and was a finalist for SharkTank's Season 15.

A master teacher at both The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute and at the Paris Opera’s Academy, Askren made history by judging the Paris Philharmonic’s inaugural La Maestra Competition for Women Conductors alongside her mentor, Marin Alsop. Askren now offers an innovative online masterclass series drawing on the full breadth of her practical experience and pedagogy.

Maestra Askren is invited regularly to speak about about leading and entrepreneurship in the arts, mentoring young artists, and cultivating humanity in the age of AI. Her TEDx talk, Why Classical Music is the Wave of the Future, garnered more than 4,500 views in under 48 hours. She is featured regularly in the American and European media, through outlets including PBS Newshour, NPR, Radio France Internationale, and France Musique. 

Askren holds degrees in piano and conducting from The Juilliard School,  Oberlin Conservatory, and the Conducting Institute of Bard in the United  States, as well as the Schola Cantorum, the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, and the Romanian National Academy of Music Gheorghe Dima  in Europe. Her musical mentors include conductors Marin Alsop and Lorin Maazel, along with pianists Byron Janis and Sergio Perticaroli/Germaine Tocatlian. She was  awarded the highest teaching diplomas from both the French Ministry of Culture (VAE, certificat d’aptitude en direction d’ensembles orchestrales) and the Romanian Ministry of Education (PhD, magna cum laude), and completed administrative training from Harvard’s Kennedy School, Christie’s Education, and Paris’ Cité de la Musique. 

When not performing abroad, Askren divides her time between New York, France and Transylvania. An enthusiastic contributor to her local communities, she has served on educational and philanthropic boards and consults for nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Europe.

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