Barbara Dragan most recently was named Young Associate Conductor at Orchestre National de France. She opened the position at ONF with a recording of new music by Mathieu Lamboley. She’s assisting Cristian Măcelaru, Daniele Gatti, François-Xavier Roth, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and Trevor Pinnock, among others.

In 2022, she took part as conducting fellow at the Cabrillo New Music Festival in Santa Cruz and Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In the 2021/22 season, she was named Conducting Fellow at the Dallas Opera Hart Institute. Since 2021, she has been studying Konzertexamen at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg with Professor Ulrich Windfuhr.

Barbara is an award recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF) and the prestigious German DAAD Fellowship. She took part in numerous finals of international conducting competitions, such as the Princess Astrid Conducting Competition in Trondheim, the Svetlanov Conducting Competition in Monaco, and German Conductors’ Award in Cologne.

She is a graduate of the Universität der Künste in Berlin and the Frédéric Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She was born into a Polish family of scientists. She started playing the violin at the age of five. Whilst studying the violin and the oboe, she passed her final exams in advanced mathematics and physics.

She has conducted several professional orchestras, including Orchestre National de France, NOSPR Katowice, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Bochumer Symphoniker, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Festival Orchestra Wien, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Beethoven’s Academy Orchestra, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Zagreb Chamber Orchestra, and Symphoniker Hamburg.