Kyrian Friedenberg

At 25 years old, American-Canadian conductor Kyrian  Friedenberg is the Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble  Intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris through 2026.  He came to international attention as the winner of the Neeme  Järvi Prize 2022 at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and gave his  debut with the Kammerorchester Basel in June 2023. In  recognition of his achievements, he has been awarded a 2024  Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award. 

The 23/24 season sees him conduct l’Orchestre de Chambre de  Paris, l’Orchestra della Toscana, l’Orchestre de Picardie, l’Orchestre  National de Lille, l’Ensemble Intercontemporain, the  Suedwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and l’Ensemble NEXT.  

He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 2020 where he was mentored by Alain Altinoglu. He has attended prestigious academies including the Gstaad Conducting Academy (2022) and the Accademia Chigiana (2023), where he worked closely with Jaap van Zweden and Daniele Gatti. He has worked in masterclasses with  Mikko Franck, Johannes Schlaefli, Baldur Brönnimann, Pascal  Rophé, Arie van Beek, and Alexandre Bloch. 

He has served as an assistant conductor for Jonathan Nott, Pierre  Bleuse, Stephanie Childress, Geoffroy Jourdain, and Johanna  Malangré, with orchestras including the St. Louis Symphony  Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de Bretagne, and l’Ensemble  Intercontemporain. Kyrian assisted Leonardo Alarcón in a 2023  production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Conservatoire de  Paris, where he conducted from the harpsichord for a performance.  Along with his association with l’Ensemble Intercontemporain,  Leonardo Alarcón’s influence and mentorship led to Kyrian’s  interest in programming the book-ends of the repertoire alongside each other. 

Previously, he has conducted the Kammerorchester Basel,  l’Ensemble Intercontemporain, Gstaad Festival Orchestra,  l’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Sinfonie-Orchester  Biel Solothurn, the Noord Nederlands Orkest, the Moravska  Filarmonica, Orchestra Senzaspine, l’Orchestre des Lauréats du  Conservatoire, and the Richmond Symphony. 

Before turning to music, Kyrian spent several years working as a young professional actor, appearing in 332 performances of the  2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone (dir. Arthur  Laurents), as well as several other Off and Off-Off Broadway shows, including a lead role in Ron Hirsen’s Frugal Repast at the Abingdon  Theater in Manhattan. In addition, he had a blossoming operatic career as a boy soprano, with title roles in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys,  Peter Ash’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Gian Carlo  Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. 

Having grown up in New York City, he completed a Bachelor of  Music in Piano and Organ Performance at McGill University  (Montréal, Canada) in 2020. He now lives in Paris.