Elizabeth Askren
From Sequenza21/NetNewMusic Wiki
Elizabeth Askren was born in New York City and began piano studies at the age of three. She holds diplomas from the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, the Conductors’ Institute at Bard, the Schola Cantorum, and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. Her teachers include: conductors Harold Farberman, Janos Furst, Dominique Rouits, and Louis Lane; pianists Byron Janis, Sergio Perticaroli, Germaine Tocatlian, and Joseph Schwartz; and composers Joan Tower and Andrew Thomas. She has received multiple coachings from conductors Marin Alsop, Karen Lynne Deal, Leon Botstein, Apo Hsu, Guillermo Figueroa, and from pianists Jean Koerner, Jacques Rouvier, and J-Y Song, amongst others.
Ms. Askren was the founding Music Director and Orchestral Conductor of the Chorus and Orchestra of Sciences Politiques (COSP) since 2001. Between 2001-2006 COSP performed over 40 concerts, including European and world premiers by Alberto Rodriguez-Ortiz, Michael Daugherty, Lori Pesacov, Kyle Gann, and Eric Salzman, featuring young soloists such as Harriet Hale Woolley scholars Raphael Bell (cellist), Meesun Hong (violinist), Mimi Solomon (pianist), Robyn Goldberg (harpist), and Molly Filer (flute).
Elizabeth Askren is honored to work regularly as Assistant Conductor to David Stern. Since 2004, she is the Cultural Attaché of the Fondation des Etats-Unis1. Under her guidance, the Fondation presents up to 40 events a season. Over the past two years the Fondation has been honored to present such noted individuals as pianist Noel Lee, political economist Marvin Zonis, composer Christopher Culpo, jazz bassist Peter Herbert, flutist and pedagogue Peter-Lukas Graf, saxophonist and pedagogue Jean-Michel Goury, and artist Bertille de Baudinière. Another important element is PONT – Portes Ouvertes aux Nouveaux Talents, whose purpose is to help “bridge” the gap between final studies and the burgeoning careers of the Fondation’s young artists and musicians.
Elizabeth Askren has worked as a conductor throughout France, Hungary and the United States. She has conducted such French ensembles as the Franco American Chamber Ensemble, FMR Orchestra, Stringendo, COGE, and the Festival FLAME orchestra, and has performed in such noted venues as the Moulin d’Andé, the Singer-Polignac Foundation, the Cité international universitaire de Paris’ Salon Honorat during “Fête de la Cité”, and the Academy of Villecroze. In 2004 she was the Assistant Music Director for a production at the Bard Fisher Center, and was Assistant Professor of Conducting to Janos Furst during his international masterclass in Szeged, Hungary. She is currently Associate Conductor for an outreach production of Benjamin Britten’s “Little Sweep”, featuring an all-professional cast and a chorus of over 270 children from underprivileged neighbourhoods. This summer she will participate in Marin Alsop’s Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music in California.
A versatile pianist, Elizabeth Askren has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in America, including New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maine, Ohio, and North Carolina, as well as throughout France and Austria. In 1998 she was awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley scholarship, and was a finalist in the International Bartok-Kabalevsky Piano Competition. In 2001 she was featured in the Orchestre National d’Ile de France’s chamber music season. She has been an active participant in the summer festivals of Tanglewood, Vienna Hochschule, and Salzburg Mozarteum, and serves on the jury of the FLAME International Competition in Paris, France.
