Chloé Dufresne

With her vibrant leadership, imaginative palette and clear technique, Chloé Dufresne has firmly made her mark on the international stage. She is currently in her second year as Music Director of Colorado Springs Philharmonic and serves as Associate Artist of Orchestre National de Bretagne and Artistic Director of Orchestre Ostinato.

Dufresne begins the 2026–27 season conducting Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in an all-Tchaikovsky programme, and makes her debut with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Elsewhere, she returns to conduct Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and two programmes with Orchestre National de Bretagne. Recent highlights include Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Opera forms an equally important part of Dufresne’s artistic life, drawing on her background in singing and choral conducting. This season she returns to Opéra de Rennes to conduct Massenet’s Werther, with further performances in Caen, Angers and Nantes, and conducts Verdi’s Requiem at University of Northern Colorado. Last season she returned to Opéra national de Paris for Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and Opéra Grand Avignon with Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène. Recent highlights include Carmen at Theater Magdeburg, Orphée aux enfers with Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse, L’Elisir d’amore with Opéra national de Lorraine and Opéra de Rennes, and a new production of Leonard Evers’ Humanoid at Semperoper Dresden. Previous titles include Don Giovanni, Norma, Britten’s Albert Herring and Offenbach’s Pomme d’Api.

As well as specialising in core repertoire by composers such as Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Dvořák and Beethoven, Dufresne is an advocate for new music, winning a prize for her interpretation of music by Camille Pépin at Besançon Conducting Competition. As Music Director of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, she continues to shape the orchestra’s artistic direction through adventurous programming spanning established masterworks and contemporary voices. She has appointed Eunike Tanzil as the orchestra’s composer-in-residence for two seasons, and among this season’s highlights is the orchestra’s centennial gala, featuring Joshua Bell performing Beethoven’s violin concerto.

Dufresne studied viola, singing and choral conducting before completing her Masters in conducting from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where her teachers included Atso Almila, Sakari Oramo and Alain Altinoglu. In 2021 she won both audience and orchestra prizes at the Besançon Conducting Competition and was awarded 3rd prize at the Malko Competition. She was a Conducting Fellow at the 2022 Lucerne Festival and a Dudamel Fellow with Los Angeles Philharmonic.